EQUITY

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2021

Note 12: Equity

Our capital stock consists solely of common stock, par value $1.00 per share, of which 480,000,000 shares may be issued. Holders of our common stock are entitled to one vote per share. We may also issue 5,000,000 shares of preferred stock, but 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 March 31, 2021, December 31, 2020 and March 31, 2020.

Our common stock purchases (all of which were open market purchases) and subsequent retirements for the year-to-date periods ended are as follows:



	March 31	December 31	March 31
in thousands, except average cost	2021	2020	2020
Shares Purchased and Retired
Number	0	214	214
Total purchase price	$ 0	$ 26,132	$ 26,132
Average cost per share	$ 0.00	$ 121.92	$ 121.92

As of March 31, 2021, 8,064,851 shares may be purchased under the current authorization of our Board of Directors.

Changes in total equity are summarized below:



	Three Months Ended
	March 31
in thousands, except per share data	2021	2020
Total Equity
Balance at beginning of year	$ 6,027,330	$ 5,621,857
Net earnings	160,614	60,258
Common stock issued
Share-based compensation plans, net of shares
withheld for taxes	(12,078)	(15,082)
Purchase and retirement of common stock	0	(26,132)
Share-based compensation expense	7,869	6,716
Cash dividends on common stock
($0.37/$0.34 per share, respectively)	(49,085)	(45,100)
Other comprehensive income (expense)	1,591	(12,191)
Balance at end of period	$ 6,136,241	$ 5,590,326