Quest Diagnostics Increases Share Repurchase Authority by $1 Billion

During 2011, the company repurchased approximately 17  million shares of common stock for $935 million. The company had 157 million shares outstanding as of December 31, 2011.

"This increase in our share repurchase authority demonstrates confidence in our continued ability to generate strong cash flow," said Surya N. Mohapatra, Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "As we have said, with key acquisitions in place, we updated our capital deployment philosophy to return a majority of our free cash flow to shareholders over the medium-term through share repurchases and dividends."