Oppenheimer Reports On Share Repurchase Program For AET

Oppenheimer is maintaining a Perform rating and a $47 price target on Aetna Inc. AET after the company announced its share repurchase program. Says Oppenheimer, in its report, “Aetna announced that its Board of Directors authorized a share repurchase of up to $750M in common stock. This authorization is in addition to the approximately $315M approved previously. At today's closing price of $45.06/share, we believe this new authorization can lead to an annualized EPS accretion of $0.19, which translates to 4.3% of our FY2012 estimate of $4.38/share. Moreover, the Board also declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.15/share, payable July 29, 2011.” AET closed at $45.90 on Friday.