Qantas Airway Limited (ASX: QAN) shares hit a 10-year high of $6.36 today despite the national carrier releasing no price-moving news to investors.
Thanks to its recent cost cutting and lower fuel costs on the back of the falling oil price the group has been posting records profits and is in the middle of a program to return capital to investors.
One key capital return method is a share buy-back program it is in the middle of executing with $117 million worth of shares being bought back as at 28 September 2017. Over October it has paid as high as $6.32 to buy back its own shares and still has around $254 million to buy back under plans to buy back a total of $373 million worth of shares.
The highest price at which management is permitted to buy back shares is $6.505, after which external investors will be left to bid the price higher if they so choose.
In August 2017 Qantas reported an underlying profit of $1.4 billion and paid 7 cents per share in dividends.
