General Motors stock is higher Wednesday after the car maker announced a dividend increase and a new share repurchase program. Here's what you need to know.

GM said the buyback has no expiration date but that it aims to complete the first $2 billion in repurchases by the end of the second quarter.

At the new 60-cent annual dividend rate, GM stock yields about 1.2%. The average dividend yield for a dividend-paying stock in the S&P 500 is about 2.3%. Ford Motor shares yield a