Argo Group International To Buyback Shares, Declares 10% Stock Dividend

Argo Group International Holdings, Ltd. (NASDAQ: AGII) disclosed that its board has taken some key decisions in respect of returning money to the shareholders. As part of it, the board gave an authorization to buy back a maximum of $150 million shares.

According to the company, the share repurchase program enabled the Company to buy back its shares opportunistically from time to time when it believes that doing so would improve long-term shareholder value. The company clarified that its repurchase authorization does not have a fixed expiration. The buyback could be in the form of negotiated deal or from the market purchases.

Argo Group International also said its board has declared a 10 percent stock dividend. The company indicated the stock dividend would be payable on June 15 to shareholders of record at June 1. Also, for fractional shares, shareholders would be paid cash in lieu of it.

The company declared a cash dividend of $0.22 a share for a quarter. The dividend would be paid on June 17 on a post-stock dividend basis to its shareholders, whose names appear on the record date of June 1.

Argo Group International said that these actions would result in the outstanding shares increasing by approximately 2.8 million shares to 30.5 million shares outstanding from 27.7 million shares.

Following the news, the stock traded 8.3 percent higher on Tuesday.