ORANGE COUNTY BRIEFLY

Comarco Inc., a Santa Ana wireless communications company, said Thursday its directors have authorized the purchase of up to 500,000 additional shares, boosting the total in its buyback plan to 2 million. Comarco said it has purchased more than 170,000 shares in the current fiscal year in open market transactions.

Over the last seven years, the company has repurchased about 1.4-million shares at an average price of $10.65 each. That tactic has added significantly to earnings per share in each of the last several years. Comarco has about 4.4 million shares outstanding. Comarco shares fell 19 cents, to $19.81, in Nasdaq trading.