Arbitron Plans $100m Share Buy-Back

The Board of US ratings giant Arbitron has authorized a programme to repurchase up to $100m of shares of the company's common stock, over a period of up to two years.

Earlier this week, the firm reported full-year 2011 revenue up 6.8% to $422.3m, and operating income up 29.6% to $85.1m. For the quarter ended December 31, revenue was up 7.6% to $120.1m, helped by the continued phase-in of contracted price increases for the company's Portable People Meter (PPM) radio ratings service.

As of December 31, 2011 the company had approximately 27,289,800 shares outstanding. Arbitron says the shares will be repurchased from 'time to time' in either open market or private transactions.

Web site: www.arbitron.com .