Samsung announced that it was launching a $10 billion share buyback program in 2015. It said that the program would be implemented in stages and would be completed in one year. The company announced the completion of this program four months ago after it purchased and canceled the final tranche of 990,000 common and 230,000 preferred shares. It pointed out that this exercise contributed to an increase of almost 20 percent in its stock price over the past year.
The company announced some initiatives that it was planning to take in order to further increase shareholder value in the short and long term back in November last year. It promised to release 4 trillion won in cash dividends to shareholders. Samsung's board has approved the release of 3.8 trillion ($3.2 billion) won in year-end dividends.
After releasing its record-breaking Q4 2016 earnings, the company has also announced another share buyback program worth 9.3 trillion won ($8 billion). This is the remaining amount earmarked for shareholders' return resources in 2015 and 2016. Samsung has said that it's going to purchase and cancel shares using these funds in three to four stages.
Investors appear to be happy with these measures as Samsung Electronics shares are now trading at a fresh high of 1.97 million won ($1,690), up 62,000 won ($53) from the previous trading session.
