Blackberry plans to buy back up to 12 million shares of common stock

BlackBerry Ltd. plans to repurchase up to 12 million shares of common stock at prevailing market prices.

The company said it has about 529.5 million shares of common stock outstanding, or about 464.7 million shares in the hands of public investors. The buyback represents about 2.5 percent of the publicly held shares.

The goal of the program is to offset dilution from employee stock plans and equity incentive plans.

The buyback program will run from Monday through June 28, 2016.

Shares of the Canadian mobile communications company rose 2 cents to $8.85 in premarket trading. Over the past year, the stock has traded between $8.59 and $12.63.