NEW YORK – Opko Health announced Friday that its board of directors authorized an increase of $100 million to the company's existing common stock repurchase program.
With approximately 671.6 million shares outstanding as of Feb. 24, Opko expects to fund the program using existing cash, cash equivalents, and future cash flows. The increased authorization combined with the prior authorization represents approximately 14 percent of shares outstanding at the current stock price, the Miami-based multinational biopharmaceutical and diagnostics company said.
Phillip Frost, Opko's chairman and CEO, said the firm's strong cash position provides it the ability to continue to fund its programs while also returning capital to shareholders.
"We believe Opko's shares continue to be significantly undervalued and offer an attractive investment opportunity," Frost said. "Buying back shares supports our conviction in Opko's strategy as we continue to advance our pipeline in the clinic and streamline our diagnostic segment on a path to profitability."
Opko aims to repurchase shares of its common stock from time to time through open market purchases, block trades, privately negotiated deals, and other mechanisms, it said.
The aggregate capacity of the share repurchase program is now $200 million, and approximately $41 million of the firm's common stock has been repurchased under the existing program since it was authorized in July 2024.
Last month, Laboratory Corporation of America reached a deal with Opko subsidiary BioReference Health to buy its oncology and oncology-related clinical laboratory business for up to $225 million. A year earlier, Labcorp acquired select assets of BioReference for $237.5 million, and in January 2022, Sema4 acquired the firm's GeneDx subsidiary for approximately $623 million.