The board of UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE:UNH) has given company managers the authority to buy back up to 120 million shares of the company's common stock.
UnitedHealth, Minnetonka, Minn., ended 2009 with 1.15 billion common shares outstanding.
UnitedHealth started 2009 with the capacity to buy back about 97 million shares of stock. It bought 74 million shares and ended the year with 23 million shares of unused buyback capacity.
The current 120 million shares of buyback capacity includes the unused capacity left over at the end of 2009.
The UnitedHealth board also has agreed to set the company's 2010 annual dividend rate at 3 cents per share, the same as in 2009.
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