ELMIRA — Chemung Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: CHMG) announced Wednesday that its board of directors has approved a plan under which it may repurchase up to 125,000 shares.
The amount represents less than 3 percent of the banking company’s nearly 4.6 million shares outstanding. Chemung Financial didn’t specify the time frame in which it plans to buy back its shares.
Under a previous share-repurchase program that the company launched in November 2009, and extended in 2010 and 2011, Chemung Financial bought back a total of 66,364 shares, as of Sept. 30, 2012. It purchased 23,120 of those shares this year at an average cost of $25.05 per share, according to Chemung Financial’s latest quarterly 10Q filing with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission. That buyback program had authorized the banking company to repurchase up to 90,000 shares.
After spending much of 2012 trading in a range between $23 and $26 a share, Chemung Financial shares have surged in recent days. The stock closed at $29.50 on Dec. 19, up 30 percent year to date. It’s a thinly traded stock with fewer than 1,000 shares changing hands per day during the last three months, according to Yahoo Finance data.
Elmira–based Chemung Financial has $1.3 billion in assets and operates 23 retail branch offices through its main subsidiary, Chemung Canal Trust Co., a community bank established in 1833. Chemung Canal Trust has offices in Chemung, Steuben, Schuyler, Tompkins, Tioga, and Broome counties, as well as Bradford County, Pa. Chemung Financial also owns Capital Bank, which has five branch offices in the Albany area.
Chemung Financial is also the parent of CFS Group, Inc., a financial-services subsidiary offering mutual funds, annuities, brokerage services, tax-preparation services and insurance.
Chemung Financial reported net income of $8.9 million through the first nine months of 2012, up more than 17 percent from $7.6 million in the same period in 2011. The company had $81.2 million in total cash and cash equivalents on hand, as of Sept. 30.
Contact Rombel at arombel@cnybj.com