BP's Stock Buyback

BP has two recently announced stock buyback programs, one for $8 billion and one for the "bulk" of the $10 billion it received from an asset sale. During the 3rd quarter of 2013, BP bought back 14 million shares a week, stepping that up to 22 million shares a week in the fourth quarter. So far this year, BP has been buying back an average of 37 million shares per week. With about 3.14 billion shares outstanding, BP would buy back all of its outstanding stock in about 85 weeks, although we doubt the buyback will reach that level.