DIVIDENDS, SHARE REPURCHASES AND EARNINGS PER SHARE

Dividends

On November 5, 2013, our board of directors approved a dividend of $0.25 per share of Common Stock, payable on December 13, 2013 to shareholders of record on November 29, 2013. See discussion of our dividends in Note 11 to our fiscal year 2013 Financial Statements. The declaration of future dividends is at the discretion of our board of directors and subject to our results of operations, financial condition, cash requirements and other factors and restrictions under applicable law and our debt instruments.

Share Repurchases

On November 2, 2011, our board of directors authorized the expenditure of up to $100 million to repurchase shares of our Common Stock within 12 months from that date, of which $25.1 million was spent. On November 2, 2012, our board of directors extended the date to repurchase shares of our Common Stock by 12 months and increased the remaining repurchase amount to $100 million of which $1.2 million was spent. On November 5, 2013. our board of directors extended the date to repurchase up to $100 million of shares of our Common Stock by another 12 months. For additional information on our repurchases of Common Stock, see “Share Repurchases” in Note 11 to the fiscal year 2013 Financial Statements. The timing and method of any repurchases under the program will depend on a variety of factors, is subject to our results of operations, financial condition, cash requirements, and other factors and restrictions under applicable law and our debt instruments, and may be suspended or discontinued at any time.

Earnings per Share

Basic earnings per common share is computed by dividing income available to common stockholders by the weighted average number of shares of Common Stock outstanding during the period. Diluted earnings per common share excludes options to purchase shares, restricted stock units and restricted stock awards, which were outstanding during the period but were anti-dilutive, as follows:



	Three Months Ended September 30,				Six Months Ended September 30,
	2013		2012		2013		2012
Options:
Outstanding	596,191		552,209		497,041		448,269
Weighted average exercise price	$	53.10	$	43.56	$	50.84	$	43.81
Restricted stock units:
Outstanding	—		4,040		—		58,016
Weighted average price	$	—	$	53.89	$	—	$	46.97
Restricted stock awards:
Outstanding	—		—		5,611		—
Weighted average price	$	—	$	—	$	68.31	$	—

The following table sets forth the computation of basic and diluted earnings per share:



	Three Months Ended September 30,				Six Months Ended September 30,
	2013		2012		2013		2012
Net income available to common stockholders (in thousands):
Income available to common stockholders – basic	$	110,606	$	29,668	$	137,492	$	53,330
Interest expense on assumed conversion of 3% Convertible Senior Notes, net of tax ⁽¹⁾	—		—		—		—
Income available to common stockholders – diluted	$	110,606	$	29,668	$	137,492	$	53,330
Shares:
Weighted average number of common shares outstanding – basic	36,403,556		35,815,672		36,265,932		35,858,237
Assumed conversion of 3% Convertible Senior Notes outstanding during the period⁽¹⁾	—		—		—		—
Net effect of dilutive stock options, restricted stock units and restricted stock awards based on the treasury stock method	297,670		526,620		352,492		601,940
Weighted average number of common shares outstanding – diluted	36,701,226		36,342,292		36,618,424		36,460,177

Basic earnings per common share	$	3.04	$	0.83	$	3.79	$	1.49
Diluted earnings per common share	$	3.01	$	0.82	$	3.75	$	1.46

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⁽¹⁾

Diluted earnings per common share for the three and six months ended September 30, 2013 and 2012 excludes approximately 1.5 million of potentially dilutive shares initially issuable upon the conversion of our 3% Convertible Senior Notes. The 3% Convertible Senior Notes will be convertible, under certain circumstances, using a net share settlement process, into a combination of cash and our Common Stock. As of September 30, 2013, the base conversion price of the notes was approximately $74.81, based on the base conversion rate of 13.3666 shares of Common Stock per $1,000 principal amount of convertible notes (subject to adjustment in certain circumstances, including the payment of dividends). In general, upon conversion of a note, the holder will receive cash equal to the principal amount of the note and Common Stock to the extent of the note’s conversion value in excess of such principal amount. In addition, if at the time of conversion the applicable price of our Common Stock exceeds the base conversion price, holders will receive up to an additional 8.6882 shares of our Common Stock per $1,000 principal amount of notes, as determined pursuant to a specified formula. Such shares did not impact our calculation of diluted earnings per share for the three and six months ended September 30, 2013 and 2012 as our stock price did not meet or exceed the base conversion price as of September 30, 2013.