Wipro stock price up 3% as IT major mulls share buyback

Shares of Wipro climbed nearly 3 per cent in Monday's trade after the IT major said its would consider a share buyback proposal over April 26-27, whose outcome will be communicated to stock exchanges on April 27, the day the Bengaluru-based firm discloses its March quarter earnings.

Following the development, the stock rose 2.64 per cent to hit a high of Rs 377.75 on BSE. Shares of Wipro have underperformed the benchmark in 2023, as they dropped 6 per cent this calendar so far against a 3.15 per cent drop in the Nifty IT index. Shares of Tech Mahindra and HCL Technologies have been flat during the same period. Larger peer Infosys plunged 20 per cent while TCS has declined 3 per cent during the same period. The scrip has fallen 31 per cent in the last one year but is up 78 per cent in the last five years.

Read more: Wipro share buyback history, stock return, Q4 results preview

The Thierry Delaporte-led company had in the past announced at least four share buybacks in 2020, 2019, 2017 and 2016.

Wipro last came out with a Rs 9,500 crore share buyback in 2020 when the IT major bought back 23.75 crore shares at Rs 400 apiece. As per data available with AceEquity, the IT major announced about the completion of the extinguishment of shares on January 21, 2021.

Before that, the Bengaluru-based company announced a Rs 10,500 crore share buyback in 2019. A total of 32.31 crore shares re bought back at Rs 325 per share. Wipro had also announced a Rs 11,000 crore share buyback in 2017. That time, the company offered to buy back 34.37 crore shares at Rs 320 apiece. The buyback shares represented 7.06 per cent of the total paid-up share capital then.

Besides, Wipro went ahead with a Rs 2,500 crore share buyback in 2016. A total of 4 crore shares were offered to be bought back at Rs 625 apiece then. Meanwhile, Wipro announced bonus issue in the ratio of 1:1 in 2017 and 1:3 in 2019.

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