Shareholders' Equity

9 Months Ended

Sep. 26, 2015

Shareholders' Equity

Shareholders’ Equity

Share repurchases

In December 2014, the Board of Directors authorized the repurchase of our ordinary shares up to a maximum dollar limit of $1.0 billion. The authorization expires on December 31, 2019. During the nine months endedSeptember 26, 2015, we repurchased 3.1 million of our shares for $200.0 million pursuant to this authorization. As of September 26, 2015, we had $800.0 million remaining available for share repurchases under this authorization.

Ordinary shares held in treasury

In August 2015, we canceled all of our ordinary shares held in treasury. At the time of the cancellation, we held 19.1 million ordinary shares in treasury at a cost of $1.2 billion.

Dividends payable

On September 21, 2015, our Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.32 per share payable on November 6, 2015 to shareholders of record at the close of business on October 23, 2015. On May 5, 2015, our Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.32 per share which was paid on August 7, 2015 to shareholders of record at the close of business on July 24, 2015.

At our 2014 annual meeting of shareholders held on May 20, 2014, our shareholders approved a proposal to pay quarterly cash dividends through the second quarter of 2015. The authorization provided that dividends of $1.20 per share be paid to our shareholders in quarterly installments of $0.30 for each of the third and fourth quarters of 2014 and the first and second quarters of 2015. In December 2014, the Board of Directors approved an increase of $0.02 per share for the 2015 first and second quarter dividends, bringing the total quarterly dividend for those quarters to $0.32 per share.

As a result, the balance of dividends payable included in Other current liabilities on our Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets was $57.7 million and $116.8 million at September 26, 2015 and December 31, 2014, respectively.