Safeway Inc. Increases Stock Repurchase Authorization by $1.0B to $7.0B

Safeway Inc. SWY announced that its Board of Directors met yesterday and declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.12 per share. The cash dividend will be payable on January 13, 2011 to stockholders of record at the close of business on December 23, 2010. The Board also increased the authorized level of the company's stock repurchase program by $1.0 billion to a total of $7.0 billion. Through the end of the third quarter of 2010, Safeway had repurchased approximately $5.2 billion of its stock and had approximately $800 million remaining under its stock repurchase program.