Capital Stock, Dividends and Common Stock Repurchase Program |
12 Months Ended | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Dec. 31, 2016 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Compensation and Retirement Disclosure [Abstract] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Capital Stock, Dividends and Common Stock Repurchase Program | 15. Capital Stock, Dividends and Common Stock Repurchase Program Capital Stock We have 1.5 billion shares of authorized common stock with a par value of $0.01 per common share. As of December 31, 2016, we had 439.3 million shares of common stock issued and outstanding. The Board of Directors is authorized to issue preferred stock in series, and with respect to each series, to fix its designation, relative rights (including voting, dividend, conversion, sinking fund, and redemption rights), preferences (including dividends and liquidation) and limitations. We have 10 million shares of authorized preferred stock, $0.01 par value, none of which is currently outstanding. Dividends Our quarterly dividends have been declared by our Board of Directors. Cash dividends declared and paid were $726 million in 2016, or $1.64 per common share, $695 million in 2015, or $1.54 per common share, and $693 million in 2014, or $1.50 per common share. In December 2016, we announced that our Board of Directors expects to increase the quarterly dividend from $0.41 to $0.425 per share for dividends declared in 2017. However, all future dividend declarations are at the discretion of the Board of Directors and depend on various factors, including our net earnings, financial condition, cash required for future business plans and other factors the Board of Directors may deem relevant.
Common Stock Repurchase Program Our share repurchases have been authorized by our Board of Directors. Share repurchases during 2016, 2015 and 2014 were completed through accelerated share repurchase (“ASR”) agreements. The terms of these agreements required that we deliver cash at the beginning of each ASR repurchase period. In exchange, we received a portion of the total shares expected to be repurchased based on the then-current market price of our common stock. The remaining shares repurchased over the course of each repurchase period are delivered to us once the repurchase period is complete. Shares repurchased are reflected in the period the shares are delivered to us. Additional information related to our ASR agreements is included below. The following is a summary of our share repurchases under our common stock repurchase program for the years ended December 31:
Each ASR agreement is accounted for as two separate transactions: (i) as shares of reacquired common stock for the shares delivered to us upon effectiveness of the ASR agreement and (ii) as a forward contract indexed to our own common stock for the undelivered shares. The initial delivery of shares is included in treasury stock at cost, and results in an immediate reduction of the outstanding shares used to calculate the weighted average common shares outstanding for basic and diluted earnings per share. The forward contracts indexed to our own stock meets the criteria for equity classification, and these amounts are initially recorded in additional paid-in capital and reclassified to treasury stock upon completion of the ASR agreement. As of December 31, 2016, $45 million of the ASR agreement executed in November 2016 is recorded in additional paid-in capital pending completion of this ASR agreement in February 2017. We announced in December 2016 that the Board of Directors has authorized up to $750 million in future share repurchases, which supersedes and replaces remaining authority under any prior Board of Directors authorization for share repurchases. Any future share repurchases will be made at the discretion of management, and will depend on factors similar to those considered by the Board of Directors in making dividend declarations. |