The Board of Directors of Texas Instruments Incorporated (NYSE: TXN) authorized the company to repurchase an additional $7.5 billion of its common stock. This is in addition to the $1.3 billion in repurchase authorizations remaining at the end of June 2010. TI plans to repurchase shares at times and prices considered appropriate by the company. Including today's announcement, the Board has authorized the repurchase of $27.5 billion of stock since September 2004. The company has reduced the number of its shares outstanding by 533 million shares, or 31 percent, from September 2004 through June 2010. Additionally, the company plans to raise its quarterly cash dividend $0.01 per common share. TI's new quarterly dividend will be $0.13 per share of common stock, resulting in annual dividend payments of $0.52 per common share. Shares of Texas Instruments surged more than 1% in pre-market trading.
Shares of Massey Energy Co. (NYSE: MEE) slumped as much as 6% after it said that the company expects 2010 operating results to be at the low end of its previously announced guidance range. "Our operations have continued to struggle since April," said Don Blankenship, Massey's Chairman and CEO. "As we have noted earlier, increasingly stringent enforcement actions by MSHA across our operations and throughout the Central Appalachian region have resulted in lost shifts and loss of productivity. In addition, our Revolution longwall mine was idled in June for a planned longwall move but has remained down pending approval of its ventilation plan. As a result of these and other factors, we now expect our third quarter shipments to approximate 10 million tons and we expect to report an operating loss for the quarter." For the full year 2010, the Company now expects to ship approximately 39 million tons of coal at an average price of approximately $71.00 per ton. The average cash cost(1) of tons shipped is expected to approximate $60.00 per ton.
Shares of Transition Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: TTHI) slumped as much as 20% after it announced today that a clinical study of gastrin analogue TT-223 in combination with a Lilly proprietary GLP-1 analogue in patients with type 2 diabetes did not meet its efficacy endpoints. Given these findings, there will be no further development of TT-223.
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