STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY

Dividends

The following table provides details of dividend payments, excluding dividend equivalent rights for unvested stock awards, in 2019 and 2020 under our Board approved quarterly cash dividend policy:



Record Date	Payment Date	Amount per Share		Total Amount
				(in millions)
2019 payments
12/31/2018	1/25/2019	$	0.50	$	68
3/29/2019	4/26/2019	$	0.55	$	74
6/28/2019	7/26/2019	$	0.55	$	74
9/30/2019	10/25/2019	$	0.55	$	73
2020 payments
12/31/2019	1/31/2020	$	0.55	$	73
3/31/2020	4/24/2020	$	0.625	$	83

In April 2020, the Board declared a cash dividend of $0.625 per share payable on July 31, 2020, to stockholders of record on June 30, 2020.

Stock Repurchases

Our Board of Directors may authorize the purchase of our common stock shares. Under the share repurchase authorization, shares may be purchased from time to time at prevailing prices in the open market, by block purchases, through plans designed to comply with Rule 10b5-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or in privately-negotiated transactions, including pursuant to accelerated share repurchase agreements with investment banks, subject to certain regulatory restrictions on volume, pricing, and timing.

On July 30, 2019, the Board of Directors replaced a previous share repurchase authorization of up to $3 billion (of which approximately $1.03 billion remained unused) with a new authorization for repurchases of up to $3 billion of our common shares exclusive of shares repurchased in connection with employee stock plans, expiring on June 30, 2022.

On July 31, 2019, we entered into an accelerated stock repurchase agreement, the July 2019 ASR, with Citibank, N.A., or Citi, to repurchase $1 billion of our common stock. On August 2, 2019, we made a payment of $1 billion to Citi and received an initial delivery of 2.7 million shares of our common stock. We recorded the payment to Citi as a reduction to stockholders’ equity, consisting of an $800 million increase in treasury stock, which reflects the value of the initial 2.7 million shares received upon initial settlement, and a $200 million decrease in capital in excess of par value, which reflects the value of stock held back by Citi pending final settlement of the July 2019 ASR. Upon final settlement of the July 2019 ASR on December 26, 2019, we received an additional 0.7 million shares as determined by the average daily volume weighted-averages share price of our common stock during the term of the agreement, less a discount, of $296.19, bringing the total shares received under the July 2019 ASR to 3.4 million. In addition, upon settlement we reclassified the $200 million value of stock initially held back by Citi from capital in excess of par value to treasury stock.

Our remaining repurchase authorization was approximately $2 billion of the $3 billion share repurchase program as of April 28, 2020.

In connection with employee stock plans, we acquired 0.04 million common shares for $17 million and 0.03 million common shares for $10 million during the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively.