Jabil's board approves $1.5 billion share buyback program

The board of directors of St. Petersburg technology giant Jabil Inc. has approved a $15 billion stock repurchase program.

The company announced the program in a note to investors Wednesday afternoon saying, “shares will be repurchased from time to time using various methods, including in the open market at the company’s discretion and subject to market conditions.”

Jabil’s CEO Mike Dastoor says in the note that share repurchasing is one of the top priorities of the company’s capital allocation strategy. “This new authorization reflects our confidence in the cash-generating power of the business, the strength of our balance sheet, and our ability to invest in attractive growth opportunities while continuing to return capital to shareholders.”

The company says it has bought back about 114 million shares at an average price of $65.66 through its shareholder return framework and “returned” about $8 billion to shareholders through repurchases and dividends since 2016.

Jabil is a global engineering, supply chain and manufacturing company that locally employs 3,000 people across three local manufacturing sites and its corporate headquarters.

According to its most recent earnings report released March 18, its revenue for the second quarter of this year grew 23% to $8.28 billion from the same period last year.