DragonWave (DRWI) Defends Its Stock with Normal Course Issuer Bid of "Up to 10% of the Float"

It appears DragonWave (DRWI) is fighting back against whatever forces were causing the freefall in the stock.  The company announced a normal course issuer bid of "up to 10%" of the float this morning.  It is always hard to know if companies will follow through on such promises because we see announcements like this of potential stock buybacks (i.e. X amount of authorized shares we "could" buy) but in reality they are just announcements, and the companies many times only buy a fraction of the shares authorized.  But from a strategic point of view, it's an interesting move even if they don't follow through all the way since it shows the company has the willpower to support the stock price.

Either way it's a nice comfort to shareholders to see an engaged management - the majority of the times you see executives more than happy to line their own pockets with extra cash, rather than defend shareholders.  Those darn socialist Canadians - thinking so different than Americans....

• The Board of Directors of DragonWave Inc. (TSX:DWI)(NASDAQ:DRWI) announced today that it has authorized the purchase of common shares of the company equal to up to 10% of the public float by way of a normal course issuer bid on the Toronto Stock Exchange and/or the NASDAQ Global Market.
• The normal course issuer bid is subject to acceptance by the TSX. If approved by the TSX, purchases pursuant to the normal course issuer bid will be made through the facilities of the TSX and/or the NASDAQ Global Market. The normal course issuer bid will be subject to the rules of the TSX and applicable securities laws, including the rules pertaining to the maximum number of shares that may be purchased in any one day.
• DragonWave will pay the market price at the time of acquisition of common shares purchased through the facilities of the NASDAQ Global Market and/or the TSX. All common shares acquired by DragonWave under the normal course issuer bid will be cancelled.
• DragonWave is initiating the normal course issuer bid because it believes that, at certain times, the market price of its common shares may not reflect the underlying value of its business and its future prospects.
• The objective of the normal course issuer bid is to provide capital appreciation and market stability for the benefit of DragonWave's shareholders.
• DragonWave has not previously engaged in a normal course issuer bid.

For reference DRWI has 36.25M shares, almost all of which is floating (34.2M).  10% of the float would be roughly 3.4M shares - at today's prices this would be around $33M if they bought all 10%.  A quick look at Yahoo Finance shows just over $100M in cash on the balance sheet.

We opined last week the stock had a probability of falling down to the 200 day moving average of $8.50... it actually fell to $8.70 before rebounding in the afternoon Friday.  Today's action is relatively muted so far, so we'll see how things progress.  Either way I give kudos to management for not leaving shareholders on an island, like most US firms do.  I would still like to see if there is a reason for such a dramatic fall in a market that is so strong - perhaps more clarity during the next earnings report.

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