The board of Rupert Murdoch's Twenty-First Century Fox Inc., the film and TV company recently separated from News Corp., authorized a $4 billion share buyback over the next 12 months and a dividend increase, Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey said on Thursday.

The board approved an increase in the annual dividend to 25 cents a share from 17 cents "on a prospective basis," Carey said at a meeting for investors.

The company set a target of "$9 billion-plus" in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for fiscal 2016, Carey said.