Saturday, October 25, 2014

Celgene: What Happened to the Buybacks?

There wasn’t much to complain about in Celgene (CELG) earnings report yesterday, which caused the biotech company’s shares to pop 6%. Bernstein’s Geoffrey Porges and Wen Shi point to Celgene’s declining buybacks:

During the quarter the company purchased a relatively modest 2.8mm shares for $252mm, compared to $2.2bn in share buybacks in the first half of the year…Our share count estimate is increased by 1-5% starting in 2015 due to lower buyback activity during the quarter…

The company’s share buyback activity was again lighter than we had anticipated, suggesting that the company either views their stock as more or less fairly valued in its recent range, or is husbanding their cash for strategic purposes.

Shares of Celgene have gained 2.78% to $103.13 at 2:28 p.m. today.

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