9. SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY AND DIVIDEND AVAILABILITY

Authorized Shares

The number of authorized shares of the Company is 1.755 billion, consisting of five million shares of preferred stock, 1.745 billion shares of voting common stock and five million undesignated shares. The Company's Articles of Incorporation authorize the Board of Directors to establish, from the undesignated shares, one or more classes and series of shares, and to further designate the type of shares and terms thereof.

Preferred Stock

The Company's Articles of Incorporation provide authority to issue up to five million shares of preferred stock.

Common Stock

The Company is governed by the Minnesota Business Corporation Act. All authorized shares of voting common stock have no par value. Shares of common stock reacquired are considered authorized and unissued shares.

Restricted Stock

In August 2017, the Company issued 95,953 shares of restricted stock valued at approximately $12 million in connection with a business acquisition to certain employees of the acquired business. The restricted stock is subject to service conditions and as such is recognized as share-based compensation; 50% of the restricted stock will vest two years from the issuance date and the remainder will vest three years from the issuance date. The value will be recognized over the respective vesting periods and included with the share-based compensation cost of awards that are issued under the Company's share-based incentive compensation plan (see note 13). The recipients generally have all the rights of a shareholder of the Company including the right to vote the applicable shares of common stock and to receive dividends on such shares, if and as declared by the Board of Directors. The restricted stock is held under the Company's control with the Company's transfer agent and will be released upon vesting.

Treasury Stock

The Company's Board of Directors has approved common share repurchase authorizations under which repurchases may be made from time to time in the open market, pursuant to pre-set trading plans meeting the requirements of Rule 10b5-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, in private transactions or otherwise. The authorizations do not have a stated expiration date. The timing and actual number of shares to be repurchased in the future will depend on a variety of factors, including the Company's financial position, earnings, share price, catastrophe losses, maintaining capital levels commensurate with the Company's desired ratings from independent rating agencies, funding of the Company's qualified pension plan, capital requirements of the Company's operating subsidiaries, legal requirements, regulatory constraints, other investment opportunities (including mergers and acquisitions and related financings), market conditions and other factors. In April 2017, the Board of Directors approved a share repurchase authorization that added an additional $5.0 billion of repurchase capacity. The following table summarizes repurchase activity in 2017 and remaining repurchase capacity at December 31, 2017.

(in millions, except per share amounts) Quarterly Period Ending		Cost of shares repurchased		Average price paid per share		Remaining capacity under share repurchase authorization

March 31, 2017	1.9	$	225	$	120.86	$	709
June 30, 2017	3.8		475		123.04		5,234
September 30, 2017	2.6		328		128.11		4,906
December 31, 2017	2.6		350		133.70		4,556

Total	10.9	$	1,378		126.42		4,556

The Company's Amended and Restated 2004 Stock Incentive Plan and the Amended and Restated 2014 Stock Incentive Plan provide settlement alternatives to employees in which the Company retains shares to cover payroll withholding taxes in connection with the vesting of restricted stock unit awards and performance share awards, and to cover the price of certain stock options that were exercised. During the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016, the Company acquired $62 million and $72 million, respectively, of its common stock under these plans.

Common shares acquired are reported as treasury stock in the consolidated balance sheet.

Dividend Availability

The Company's U.S. insurance subsidiaries, domiciled principally in the State of Connecticut, are subject to various regulatory restrictions that limit the maximum amount of dividends available to be paid by each insurance subsidiary to its respective parent company without prior approval of insurance regulatory authorities. A maximum of $2.66 billion is available by the end of 2018 for such dividends to the holding company, TRV, without prior approval of the Connecticut Insurance Department. The Company may choose to accelerate the timing within 2018 and/or increase the amount of dividends from its insurance subsidiaries in 2018, which could result in certain dividends being subject to approval by the Connecticut Insurance Department.

In addition to the regulatory restrictions on the availability of dividends that can be paid by the Company's U.S. insurance subsidiaries, the maximum amount of dividends that may be paid to the Company's shareholders is limited, to a lesser degree, by certain covenants contained in its line of credit agreement with a syndicate of financial institutions that require the Company to maintain a minimum consolidated net worth as described in note 8.

TRV is not dependent on dividends or other forms of repatriation from its foreign operations to support its liquidity needs. The undistributed earnings of the Company's foreign operations are intended to be permanently reinvested in those operations, and such earnings were not material to the Company's financial position or liquidity at December 31, 2017.

TRV and its two non-insurance holding company subsidiaries received dividends of $2.33 billion, $3.05 billion and $3.75 billion from their U.S. insurance subsidiaries in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively.

For the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015, TRV declared cash dividends per common share of $2.83, $2.62 and $2.38, respectively, and paid cash dividends of $785 million, $757 million and $739 million, respectively.

Statutory Net Income and Statutory Capital and Surplus

Statutory net income of the Company's domestic and international insurance subsidiaries was $2.30 billion, $3.20 billion and $3.80 billion for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. Statutory capital and surplus of the Company's domestic and international insurance subsidiaries was $20.45 billion and $20.76 billion at December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively.