Shares of Bank of America Corp. BAC,
gained 1.2% in premarket trading on Tuesday, after the bank said it authorized the redemption of $ 2.9 billion worth of common stock by March 31. The bank also announced a regular quarterly dividend of 18 cents per share, to be paid to record shareholders on March 5th. The announcements come ahead of BofA’s fourth quarterly report, which is expected to be unveiled later on Tuesday. The bank said it is the maximum allowed for this period, according to guidelines set by the Federal Reserve. Based on Friday’s closing price of $ 33.01, that repurchase program could account for up to 87.85 million shares, or about 1% of the remaining shares. BofA shares rose 39.2% in the last three months to Friday, while the S&P 500 SPX,
gained 10.0%.