FEDEX CORP. $132 (New York symbol FDX; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 312.2 million; Market cap: $41.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.0; Dividend yield: 0.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.fedex.com) plans to sell $2 billion worth of new long-term notes. The delivery firm will use the cash to buy back 11.4 million of its common shares, or 4% of the total outstanding, at current market prices. It aims to complete these purchases by May 31, 2014.
Share buybacks raise earnings per share and other per-share calculations and give the remaining shareholders a larger stake in the company.
The notes will raise the company’s long-term debt to around $4.7 billion. That’s still a low 11% of its market cap. FedEx also held cash of $3.9 billion, or $12.37 a share, as of November 30, 2013.
FedEx is a buy.