Home Depot plans $10-billion stock buy

Home Depot Inc. said Tuesday that it expected to repurchase 289.6 million of its shares for $10.7 billion as a result of a tender offer, a little less than halfway toward its goal of buying back $22.5 billion in stock.

Preliminary results of the tender offer that ended Friday indicated the nation’s biggest home improvement store chain expected to repurchase the shares at $37 a share, using about $8 billion in net proceeds from its sale of HD Supply, its wholesale distribution business, and $2.7 billion in cash, spokeswoman Paula Drake said.

Drake said the final results would be released next week.

Because Atlanta-based Home Depot decided to use cash in the tender offer, the company did not utilize a $2-billion credit line it set up in connection with the tender offer, Drake said.

The 289.6 million shares represent about 48% of the company’s plan to repurchase $22.5 billion in shares. Drake said the company would continue buying back shares but said there was no specific timeline for doing so.

Home Depot shares fell $1.95, or 5%, to $36.36.