On September 19, 2012, the Company's Board of Directors approved a share repurchase program authorizing the repurchase of shares of the Company’s common stock up to an aggregate purchase price of $3,000,000. The repurchases may be made from time to time on the open market at prevailing market prices, in negotiated transactions off the market, in block purchases or otherwise. The repurchase program may be suspended or discontinued at any time at the Company’s discretion and has no set expiration date.
The U.S. economy, supported by improving levels of consumer spending, gains in residential and nonresidential building, and rising levels of exports, produced growth of 1.1%, 2.5% and 3.6%, respectively, in the first, second and third quarters of calendar 2013.
The Federal Reserve, a supporter of the economic upturn via bond purchases each month, may well opt to slow down that process in the coming months. In anticipation of such an adjustment, interest rates - in particular mortgage rates - are currently climbing, as are Treasury yields on notes and bonds.
The highly accommodative monetary policies in place up to this point in the business expansion cycle have helped to keep intact the long bull market in equities. However, in the past number of weeks, the fear of an upcoming tapering in the aforementioned bond buying has led to a selectively less bullish approach to stocks at times. Overall, Value Line remains somewhat cautious in our approach to the stock market, sensing that equities are no better than fairly valued, at this time.