Merrill to buy back $6 billion in shares

Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. will buy back as much as $6 billion in shares of common stock over time, in an effort to return capital building up on its balance sheet to investors, the company announced today. The New York-based investment bank has generated strong earnings in recent quarters, helped by strong returns in its trading and private equity businesses. The announcement follows Merrill's announced $6 billion share buyback in Feb. 2006 and a $5 billion buyback last year (InvestmentNews, November 14) . At the close of the first quarter, Merrill had $1.2 trillion still outstanding on the October authorization, the company said early this month. "We seek to balance increasing our return on equity and growing our book value per share," said Jeff Edwards, chief financial officer of Merrill Lynch, according to a statement. "To achieve this goal, our primary focus is to deploy capital into profitable growth opportunities." Based on Friday's close of $90.11, the most recent $6 billion authorization could buy back about 66.6 million shares, or nearly 8% of the average basic number of shares listed in its most recent quarterly results, according to Reuters. Merrill Lynch has offices in 37 countries and territories and total client assets of approximately $1.6 trillion.