Stockholders' Equity

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2017

Stockholders' Equity Note [Abstract]

Stockholders’ Equity

Common Stock

The Company is authorized to issue up to 150.0 million shares of Voting Common Stock and 3.0 million shares of Class B Non-Voting Common Stock. As more fully described in Note 8, the Company is party to an equity distribution program under which the Company may sell shares of its common stock.

The Company’s Board of Directors authorized share repurchase programs in January 2017 and May 2015, authorizing the Company to repurchase up to 1.9 million and 3.0 million shares of its common stock, respectively, and these authorizations have no expiry. In 2017, the Company repurchased 2.4 million shares of this total authorized amount, at an average price per share of $173.19. As of December 31, 2017, 1.6 million shares remained available for repurchase under the January 2017 Plan and no shares remained available for repurchase under the May 2015 Plan. See Note 27.

The following is a summary of the Company’s share repurchase activity for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2016 and 2017:



Year	Shares Repurchased	Average Price
2015	1.7	$	209.39
2016	0.2	161.16
2017	2.4	173.19

Preferred Stock

The Company is authorized to issue up to 5.0 million shares of Preferred Stock. Any such Preferred Stock issued by the Company may rank prior to common stock as to dividend rights, liquidation preference or both, may have full or limited voting rights and may be convertible into shares of common stock.

Financial Instruments

The Company’s junior convertible securities contain an embedded right for holders to receive shares of the Company’s common stock under certain conditions. These arrangements, as well as the equity distribution program, meet the definition of equity and are not required to be accounted for separately as derivative instruments.