NOTE 10 – PREFERRED STOCK

At September 30, 2018, we had 1,000,000 authorized shares of preferred stock and zero shares issued and outstanding of mandatory convertible preferred stock.

We declared and paid dividends of $8.4 million and $8.9 million to the preferred shareholders during the three months ended September 30, 2018 and 2017, respectively. We declared and paid dividends of $25.5 million and $27.5 million to the preferred shareholders during the nine months ended September 30, 2018 and 2017, respectively.

The following table provides information about our repurchases of depository shares of mandatory convertible preferred stock during the nine months ended September 30, 2018:

In millions, except share and per share data
	Number of Depository Shares Repurchased		Amount Paid for Repurchases		Average Price Paid per Share
January 1 - January 31, 2018		-	$	-	$	-
February 1 - February 28 , 2018		151,900		7.4		49.05
March 1 - March 31 , 2018		-		-		-
April 1 - April 30 , 2018		-		-		-
May 1 - May 31 , 2018		150,000		7.4	$	49.24
June 1 - June 30 , 2018		-		-		-
July 1 - July 31 , 2018		-		-		-
August 1 - August 31, 2018		50,000		2.4		47.05
September 1 - September 30 , 2018		-		-		-
Total		351,900	$	17.2	$	48.85

For the nine months ended September 30, 2018 and 2017, repurchases of our mandatory convertible preferred stock resulted in a $16.9 million and $14.4 million, respectively, increase in retained earnings, as we redeemed the preferred stock at a discount. The 351,900 depository shares purchased in 2018 were equivalent to 35,190 units of preferred stock.

On September 14, 2018, in accordance with their terms of issue, 638,190 shares of the Company’s Series A Mandatory Convertible Preferred Stock (“Series A”), representing all of the preferred stock outstanding as of that date, were converted into a total of 4.7 million shares of the Company’s common stock at a ratio of 7.3394 shares of our common stock for each share of Series A.