On Assignments Gets Fresh $150 Million Stock Buyback Program

On Assignment, Inc.

revealed that its Board of Directors has approved a fresh stock buyback program, under which it may buyback a maximum of $150 million of its common stock in the next two years. On Assignment said that under terms of the program, repurchases could be made from the open market or under a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The company added that the program is effective immediately and supersedes its earlier $100 million repurchase authorization ($98 million was remaining under the authorization). The company stated that the stock buyback program does not obligate it to acquire any particular amount of the Company's stock, and it may be suspended at any time at the Company's discretion. The company's president and CEO, Peter Damaris, said that "Since the acquisition of Creative Circle in June 2015, we have reduced our leverage ratio from 3.8 times (ratio of debt to trailing Adjusted earnings before interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization) to 2.8 times at the end of the preceding quarter." He added that "The reduction in our leverage ratio reflects our strong free cash flow generation (which we used to pay down debt). We are trending to reduce our leverage ratio to below 2.5 times prior to the end of the third quarter. We believe that the repurchase program is currently an attractive way for us to return value to our stockholders and does not preclude us from pursuing attractive business development opportunities." In the pre-market trading, the stock traded 0.46 percent higher.