ConocoPhillips Has Bought Back 29.4 Million Shares So Far in 2017. Should Investors Be Happy?

Last November ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) outlined its strategy to create value amid a volatile oil market, along with actions to accelerate its value proposition. Among those efforts was a plan to monetize $5 billion to $8 billion of non-core assets and use $3 billion of the proceeds to repurchase stock.

However, a few months later the company supercharged that plan after announcing the sale of several oil and gas assets in Canada to Cenovus Energy (NYSE: CVE) in a $13.3 billion deal. That put the company on pace to sell $16 billion in assets by the end of this year, which gave it the cash to double its buyback to $6 billion, half of which it plans to use by year-end. It has already started repurchasing stock, spending $1 billion through the end of the second quarter. Given the meaningful impact this repurchase is already having on the company's per-share metrics, and the likelihood of an even greater benefit down the road, it's a move that should have investors smiling.

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Source: Fool.com