By Maria Armental

Aetna Inc. is doubling its quarterly dividend and adding another $4 billion to its stock-buyback authorization, days after it walked away from its $34 billion merger deal with Humana Inc. over government antitrust concerns.

A federal judge had ruled that merger would threaten competition, harming seniors who buy private Medicare coverage as well as some people who buy health plans through an Affordable Care Act insurance exchange.

Now without the deal's expenses on the horizon, Aetna is able to use its liquidity to buy back more stock and boost payouts to shareholders. The increased buyback authorization means Aetna has about $5.1 billion available to repurchase stock, which includes approximately $1.1 billion left from previous authorizations in 2014.

The first payout under the raised 50-cent-a-share dividend will be on April 28 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on April 13.

Shares of the Connecticut-based insurer, up 19% over the past 12 months, fell 2.9% to $125.76 in recent trading Friday.

Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 17, 2017 15:10 ET (20:10 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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