At December 31, 2019, the Company had 1,000,000 authorized shares of preferred stock and zero shares issued and outstanding.

Series A Mandatory Convertible Preferred Stock Offering: On September 15, 2015, the Company completed a registered public offering of 7,700,000 depositary shares, each representing a 1/10th interest in a share of 5.25% Series A Mandatory Convertible Preferred Stock, par value $0.01 per share (the "Series A Preferred Stock"), at a public offering price of $100.00 per depository share for total gross proceeds of $770.0 million.

On September 14, 2018, in accordance with their terms of issue, 638,190 shares of the Company’s Series A Preferred Stock, 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 common stock for each share of Series A Preferred Stock.

Prior to the conversion referenced above, dividends on shares of the Series A Preferred Stock were payable on a cumulative basis when, as and if declared by the Company’s Board of Directors, or an authorized committee thereof, at an annual rate of 5.25% on the liquidation preference of $1,000 per share (and, correspondingly, $100.00 per share with respect to the depositary shares). The dividends were payable in cash, or subject to certain limitations, in shares of common stock, or any combination of cash and shares of common stock, on March 15, June 15, September 15 and December 15 of each year, commencing on December 15, 2015, and to, and including, September 15, 2018.

The Company declared and paid dividends of $25.5 million and $36.3 million to the Series A Preferred Stock shareholders during the years ended December 31, 2018, and 2017, respectively.

The following table provides information about the Company’s repurchases of depository shares of Series A Preferred stock, prior to the conversion referenced above, during the year ended December 31, 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		-		-		-
October 1 - October 31 , 2018		-		-		-
November 1 - November 30 , 2018		-		-		-
December 1 - December 31, 2018		-		-		-
Total		351,900	$	17.2	$	48.85

For the year ended December 31, 2018, repurchases of the Company’s depository shares resulted in increases in retained earnings of $16.9 million, because the Company redeemed the depository shares at a discount. The 351,900 depository shares repurchased during 2018 were equivalent to 35,190 shares of Series A Preferred Stock.