Peoples Financial in Mississippi to Repurchase Stock

Peoples Financial (PFBX) in Biloxi, Miss., is resuming stock buybacks.

The $805 million-asset company said Thursday that it will repurchase 30% of the 150,000 shares that its board authorized in 2009 for buybacks. The board had suspended the plan after repurchasing roughly 34,000 shares.

Peoples says it will retire the shares after buying them either privately or on the open market.

"We suspended the 2009 repurchase in the face of a deteriorating economy and to preserve capital," Chevis Swetman, Peoples' chief executive, said in a press release. "Today our stock is trading at about half its book value, and our directors have concluded that a measured repurchase at this time is an attractive use of capital under the current economic conditions."

Peoples has 16 branches along Mississippi's Gulf Coast.

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