Royal Philips (NYSE:PHG) said today that it will repurchase up to 6 million shares to cover long-term investments and its employee stock purchase plans. At the current share price, the shares represent up to approximately €260 million ($285.86 million).
The company said it plans to begin repurchasing shares in the first half of 2020.
As part of its fourth-quarter 2019 report released this week, Philips also said it will jettison its appliance business to focus on healthcare. The company said it will create a separate legal structure for the €2.3 billion ($2.53 billion) appliance business within 18 months.
Philips’ results for the three months that ended Dec. 31, 2019 topped the consensus forecast but revealed a profit decrease of more than 20%. The Amsterdam-based company posted profits of $611.9 million, or 67¢ per share, on sales of $6.6 billion for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2019, for a 21.9% bottom-line slide on sales growth of 6.2%.
Philips today also said it repurchased €1.5 billion ($1.65 billion) in shares from January 24, 2020, through January 27, 2020, to reduce capital.
Shares in PHG opened today down -0.63% to $47.52.