Capital Stock

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2023

Equity [Abstract]

Capital Stock

Capital Stock

The Company has the authority to issue an aggregate of 750 million shares of common stock having a par value of $0.01 per share. The stockholders of Xylem common stock are entitled to receive dividends as declared by the Xylem Board of Directors. Dividends declared were $1.32, $1.20 and $1.12 during 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively.

The changes in shares of common stock outstanding for the three years ended December 31 are as follows:

(share units in thousands)	2023	2022	2021
Beginning Balance, January 1	180,253	180,392	180,354
Shares issued for the Evoqua acquisition (a)	58,779	—	—
Stock incentive plan net activity	2,730	437	716
Repurchase of common stock	(258)	(576)	(678)
Ending Balance, December 31	241,504	180,253	180,392

(a)See Note 3. "Acquisitions and Divestitures" of our consolidated financial statements for further information.

For the years ended December 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022 the Company repurchased 0.3 million shares of common stock for $25 million and repurchased 0.6 million shares of common stock for $52 million, respectively. Repurchases include both share repurchase programs approved by the Board of Directors and repurchases in relation to settlement of employee tax withholding obligations due as a result of the vesting of restricted stock units. The detail of repurchases by each program are as follows:

On August 24, 2015, our Board of Directors authorized the repurchase of up to $500 million in shares with no expiration date. The program's objective is to deploy our capital in a manner that benefits our stockholders and maintains our focus on growth. For the year ended December 31, 2023, there were no shares repurchased under the program. For the year ended December 31, 2022, we repurchased 0.5 million shares for $46 million. There are up to $182 million in shares that may still be purchased under this plan as of December 31, 2023.

Aside from the aforementioned repurchase programs, we repurchased approximately 0.3 million and 0.1 million shares for $25 million and $6 million during 2023 and 2022, respectively, in relation to settlement of employee income tax withholding obligations due as a result of the vesting of restricted stock units. These repurchases are included in the stock incentive plan net activity in the above table.