Principal Financial Group Inc. announced Wednesday that its board of directors has authorized the repurchase of up to $150 million worth of the company’s outstanding common stock. The Des Moines-based financial services company had 293.9 million shares of common stock outstanding as of Dec. 31. “This action reflects our continued confidence in the strength and financial flexibility of our investment management business model,” said Larry Zimpleman, chairman and CEO, in a release. “We continue to generate free cash and strategically deploy it in the best interest of shareholders. As we said on our fourth quarter earnings call, we expect to deploy a total of $800 million to $1 billion of capital in 2015 on diverse strategies such as an increased common stock dividend and opportunistic acquisitions and share repurchase.” The repurchases will be made in the open market or through privately negotiated transactions, from time to time, depending on market conditions, the company said.