Why Investors Were Banking on Banco Macro Stock Today

Argentinian lender Banco Macro (NYSE: BMA) is preparing to spend millions of dollars on buying back its own stock, and investors were over the moon about it. They expressed this by pushing the South American bank's American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) up by over 17% that trading session. That performance obliterated the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC), which sank by 0.3%.

157 million reasons to be cheerful

Banco Macro announced the share repurchase program after U.S. market hours Wednesday, stating that its board of directors has authorized up to $225 billion Argentine pesos ($157 million) in such buys of its Class B stock listed in that country.

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For this, it will pay a maximum of 7,500 pesos ($5.25) per share.

In the press release heralding the initiative's launch, Banco Macro wrote that it's enacting buybacks "based on the current domestic and international macroeconomic context and the fluctuations in the capital market in general, which has materially affected the price of domestic shares."

A short stretch

Banco Macro's current repurchase program won't last long; the company said it would be in force for 60 days following publication of notice in the Bulletin of the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange. The bank did say the initiative might be extended. If so, the relevant information is to be published in the same periodical.

Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.