Aetna (AET) announced that it has entered into accelerated share repurchase agreements with two dealers to repurchase an aggregate of $3.3B of the company's common stock.

The accelerated share repurchase agreements are being executed under Aetna's existing share repurchase programs. Aetna is funding the repurchases under the accelerated share repurchase agreements from available cash. Under the terms of the accelerated share repurchase agreements, Aetna will make a $1.65B payment to each dealer on February 22, 2017 and will receive from each of them an initial delivery of approximately 10.4 million shares of Aetna common stock on the same day. The final number of shares of Aetna common stock to be repurchased from each dealer will be based on the volume-weighted average share price of Aetna's common stock during the term of the applicable transaction, less a discount.

The final settlement of the transactions under the accelerated share repurchase agreements is expected to occur during or prior to the third quarter of 2017.