Baltimore money manager Legg Mason Inc. said Monday that it has contracts to buy $300 million of its shares and will pay for the purchase with cash as part of a $1 billion stock buyback plan announced earlier in the month.

The company expects to make additional stock purchases worth $100 million by the end of March 2011, with the rest of the $1 billion buyback to come in future years. The company had 161.4 million shares of common stock outstanding as of March 31. Its stock price closed at $29.58 a share Monday, down 56 cents from Friday.