By Chelsey Dulaney
Medtronic PLC said Friday that it will boost its dividend by 25%
and add about $6 billion worth of authorization to its
share-buyback program.
The medical-device maker said it will pay out a quarterly cash
dividend of 38 cents a share on July 17, up from its previous
dividend of 30.5 cents a share.
Medtronic said it will also buy back an additional 80 million
shares, representing about 6% of its shares outstanding. At
Thursday's closing price of $76.72 a share, the share repurchases
would be valued at $6.14 billion. There is no specific time period
associated with the plan.
Medtronic said it has bought back $8.3 billion of its own stock
in the past five years.
Separately, Medtronic said it has bought cardiac mapping company
CardioInsight Technologies Inc. in a deal valued at $93
million.
Medtronic in January closed on a deal to buy Covidien Plc, which
combined two of the world's largest surgical-implant and
hospital-supply companies. The deal involved Medtronic
reincorporating from Minneapolis to Dublin, a so-called inversion
deal that lowers the company's tax burden.
Write to Chelsey Dulaney at Chelsey.Dulaney@wsj.com
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