Lee Enterprises plans to spend about $30 million to buy back its sagging stock, the U.S. newspaper company announced Monday.

"The true value of Lee stock is currently greatly undervalued on Wall Street, and we see this buyback as an opportunity to add value for our stockholders as it is immediately accretive to earnings per share," Mary Junck, Lee Chairman and CEO said in a statement.

The chain's "continuing strong cash flow" will enable Lee to make the buyback without significantly impacting the debt repayment schedules or other uses of free cash after dividends, Junck added.

Lee reduced its net debt by $135 million in 2007 and by $179 million in 2006. Its stock plummeted more than 18 percent in a single day on unusually large trading volume last Thursday. The company said the reason for the stock movement is unknown, Editor and Publisher reported.