Capital Stock, Dividends and Common Stock Repurchase Program |
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Capital Stock, Dividends and Common Stock Repurchase Program | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Capital Stock, Dividends and Common Stock Repurchase Program | 14. 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, 2019, we had 424.3 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 $876 million in 2019, or $2.05 per common share, $802 million in 2018, or $1.86 per common share, and $750 million in 2017, or $1.70 per common share. In December 2019, we announced that our Board of Directors expects to increase the quarterly dividend from $0.5125 to $0.545 per share for dividends declared in 2020. 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, growth and acquisitions and other factors the Board of Directors may deem relevant. Common Stock Repurchase Program The Company repurchases shares of its common stock as part of capital allocation programs authorized by our Board of Directors. Share repurchases during the reported periods were completed through accelerated share repurchase (“ASR”) agreements and, to a lesser extent, open market transactions. The terms of these ASR 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. The following is a summary of our share repurchases under our common stock repurchase program for the years ended December 31:
In December 2019, we publicly confirmed that the Company has $1.32 billion remaining on its existing Board of Directors’ authorization to repurchase shares of the Company’s common stock. 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, including our net earnings, financial condition and cash required for future business plans, growth and acquisitions. |