Money world

Having seen shares decline by more than half over the past three months, Peabody Energy Corp.’s board on Friday doubled the size of the company’s existing stock repurchase program to $1 billion.

The St. Louis-based coal producer has been buying back stock under the program since June 2005, and said it may repurchase shares or discontinue the buyback plan at any time. Companies buy their own shares to help raise earnings per share and boost their stock price.

"The fundamentals of the business are sound and we maintain strong capacity to continue to grow the company," Chief Executive Gregory H freecreditreport. Boyce said in a statement.

The company had repurchased about $100 million of stock under the plan as of June 30 and "we have continued to be active since then," Peabody spokesman Vic Svec said.
Peabody had 270.7 million shares outstanding at Sept. 30, and will provide updated stock repurchase data in its next quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

jtomich@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8320

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