NOTE 13: EQUITY

Our capital stock consists solely of common stock, par value $1.00 per share. Holders of our common stock are entitled to one vote per share. Our Certificate of Incorporation also authorizes 5,000,000 shares of preferred stock, of which no shares have been issued. The terms and provisions of such shares will be determined by our Board of Directors upon any issuance of preferred shares in accordance with our Certificate of Incorporation.

There were no shares held in treasury as of December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016.

Our common stock purchases (all of which were open market purchases) and subsequent retirements for the years ended December 31 are summarized below:



in thousands, except average cost	2018	2017	2016
Shares Purchased and Retired
Number	1,192	510	1,427
Total purchase price	$ 133,983	$ 60,303	$ 161,463
Average price per share	$ 112.41	$ 118.18	$ 113.18

As of December 31, 2018, 8,297,789 shares may be purchased under the current authorization of our Board of Directors.

Dividends were as follows:



in thousands, except per share data	2018	2017	2016
Dividends
Cash dividends	$ 148,109	$ 132,335	$ 106,333
Cash dividends per share	$ 1.12	$ 1.00	$ 0.80