Arch Coal Initiates Capital Allocation Programs - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Arch Coal, Inc. (ARCH) announced its Board has approved two capital allocation initiatives to enhance shareholder returns. First, the board has instituted a quarterly cash dividend of $0.35 per share. The quarterly dividend will begin with the second quarter and will be paid on June 15, 2017 to stockholders of record on May 31, 2017. In addition, the board has approved the establishment of a share repurchase program that authorizes the company to purchase up to $300 million of the company's outstanding common stock. The repurchase program has no time limit.

The company has raised its coking coal volume guidance for 2017. Arch now expects to sell between 6.7 and 7.1 million tons of coking coal, which excludes PCI coal. At the midpoint of its volume guidance level, Arch is over 85 percent committed on coking coal sales for the full year, with over 30 percent of that committed volume exposed to index-based pricing. At the midpoint of guidance, Arch's thermal sales are 88 percent committed for the full year.