Stock Repurchase Program and Cash Dividend

9 Months Ended

Jul. 31, 2017

Stock Repurchase Program and Cash Dividend

On May 23, 2016, our Board of Directors terminated a prior share repurchase program and authorized, under a new repurchase program, the repurchase of 20 million shares of our common stock in open market transactions or otherwise for general corporate purposes, including to obtain shares for the Company’s equity award and other employee benefit plans. The Board of Directors did not fix any expiration date for this repurchase program.

The table below provides, for the periods indicated, information about our share repurchase programs:



	Nine months ended July 31,				Three months ended July 31,
	2017		2016		2017		2016
Number of shares purchased (in thousands)	2,492		11,405		1,929		3,698
Average price per share	$	36.40	$	28.72	$	39.02	$	26.33
Remaining authorization at July 31 (in thousands)	13,347		18,085		13,347		18,085

Subsequent to July 31, 2017 and through September 5, 2017, we repurchased approximately 3.8 million shares of our common stock at an average price of $38.27 per share.

On February 21, 2017, our Board of Directors approved the initiation of quarterly cash dividends to shareholders. During the nine months and three months ended July 31, 2017, we declared and paid dividends of $0.16 per share and $0.08 per share, respectively.