Northrop Grumman to repurchase $2 billion in stock

LOS ANGELES -- Northrop Grumman Corp. said Thursday that it has approved a plan to buy back up to 11 percent of the company's shares.

The Los Angeles aerospace and electronics manufacturer said its board has authorized it to spend $2 billion on the repurchase of common stock.

"Today's increase in our share repurchase authorization demonstrates our continuing commitment to a balanced cash deployment strategy that drives value creation by investing for the future, managing risk, and distributing cash to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends," Wes Bush, Northrop Grumman's CEO and president, said in a statement.

The company, which has operations in Rolling Meadows, has about 300 million shares outstanding, and its shares rose 91 cents to $61.99 in Thursday premarket trading.

Northrop Grumman bought 8.3 million of its shares during the first quarter when the company reported net income of $469 million, or $1.53 per share. Revenue increased 9 percent to $8.61 billion.

Northrop Grumman said it was awarded $6.9 billion worth of business in the quarter, bringing the company's total backlog to $67.5 billion as of March 31.