The board of directors at Symantec Corp has voted to authorize the repurchase of up to 5%, or about 2.8 million, of its 56 million outstanding shares of common stock by December 31. The Cupertino, California-based company says the shares will mainly be used for employee stock purchase programs and option grants. Any shares not used for those purposes could be retired which might bolster the company’s future earnings per share figures, something that has been a bit of a concern for Wall Street as of late. Over the past few weeks, Symantec’s share price has fallen from its 52-week high of $32.625 to about $23, a nearly 30% drop. On Monday alone, they fell 11% before rebounding on Tuesday to climb $2.06, or 9%, to $24.75.
