In addition to declaring a regular quarterly dividend of $0.5775 per share, the Board of Directors of Verizon Communications, Inc. (NYSE: VZ – $50.09) authorized the company to repurchase up to 100 million shares of its common stock. Verizon’s previous program, which expired on Feb. 28, 2017, also had authorized the repurchase of 100 million shares. Under the prior authorization, 2.8 million shares were repurchased. The new program will terminate when the aggregate number of shares purchased reaches 100 million, or at the close of business on Feb. 28, 2020, whichever is sooner. Verizon has approximately 4.1 billion shares of common stock outstanding and made $9.3 billion in cash dividend payments in 2016. The dividend, yielding 4.6%, is payable on May 1, 2017, to shareowners of record at the close of business on April 10, 2017. The shares of VZ remain a solid holding in most risk-averse accounts.
