Citrix To Buy Back $750M As Part Of Capital Return Program

Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS) has recently entered into an accelerated share repurchase (ASR) transaction with Goldman Sachs & Co (NYSE:GS). LLC to buy back an aggregate of $750 million shares.

This move is part of the previously announced capital return program by dint of which, the company aims to return $2 billion to its shareholders by Dec 31, 2018. In November 2017, the company’s board cleared a share buyback program worth more than $2 billion. Citrix has already repurchased $750 million shares of the total authorization. Following this new ASR, the company will be left with $500 million shares to be bought back.

Per the terms of the agreement, Citrix will buy back its shares worth $750 million from Goldman Sachs. Accordingly, the company is said to have paid the stipulated amount to Goldman Sachs on Feb 5, in return to the 6.5 million share delivery based on the current market price.

The purchase price of each share under the program is subject to adjustment and anticipated to be equal to Citrix’s volume-weighted average price during the time frame pertaining to the ASR, minus a discount. The exact number of shares repurchased related to the ASR will be ascertained per the purchase price. The transaction is expected to conclude by April 2018.

New CFO Appointed

The company has appointed Andrew “Drew” Del Matto as its executive vice president and chief financial officer (CFO) effective Feb 19. Del Matto will report to the president and CEO, David Henshall.

He will focus on the company’s financial and capital management strategies, budgeting and planning, financial accounting, tax and treasury, investor relations as well as information technology functions.

He will replace Mark Coyle, who has been serving as Citrix’s interim CFO since July 2017. Coyle will now continue at Citrix as the senior vice president, finance, and will report to Del Matto.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Citrix carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the same space are Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AZPN) , DST Systems, Inc. (NYSE:DST) and Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ:PRGS) , each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Shares of Aspen Technology, DST Systems and Progress Software have rallied more than 21%, 15% and 33%, respectively, in 2017.

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