COMMON STOCK:

The following shares were issued and outstanding at December 31 (See Note 1):



	2018	2017	2016
Beginning of Year	79,549,080	79,478,055	70,965,622
New Issuances During Year:
Dividend Reinvestment Plan	—	—	417,095
Stock-Based Compensation Plan	67,308	71,025	45,338
Public Equity Offering	5,889,830	—	8,050,000
End of Year	85,506,218	79,549,080	79,478,055

The par value ($1.25 per share) of stock issued was recorded in Common Stock and the net excess over par value at December 31, 2018 of approximately $133.6 million was recorded in Premium on Common Stock.

There were 2,339,139 shares of SJG's common stock (par value $2.50 per share) outstanding as of December 31, 2018. SJG did not issue any new shares during the period. SJIU, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SJI, owns all of the outstanding common stock of SJG.

PUBLIC OFFERINGS - In April 2018, the Company completed the following public offerings, the net proceeds of which were used to fund a portion of the consideration paid for the assets of ETG and ELK (see Notes 1 and 20):

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SJI offered 12,669,491 shares of its common stock, par value $1.25 per share, at a public offering price of $29.50 per share. Of the offered shares, 5,889,830 shares were issued at closing, including 1,652,542 shares pursuant to the underwriters’ option. The gross proceeds from these shares was $173.7 million, with net proceeds, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions, of $167.7 million. The remaining 6,779,661 shares of common stock ("Forward Shares") were to be sold by Bank of America, N.A., as forward seller, pursuant to a forward sale agreement. The Company received no proceeds from the sale of the Forward Shares in 2018. In January 2019, the Company settled the equity forward sale agreement; see Note 22.

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SJI issued and sold 5,750,000 Equity Units, initially in the form of Corporate Units, which included 750,000 Corporate Units pursuant to the underwriters’ option. Each Corporate Unit has a stated amount of $50 and is comprised of (a) a purchase contract obligating the holder to purchase from the Company, and for the Company to sell to the holder for a price in cash of $50, on the purchase contract settlement date, or April 15, 2021, subject to earlier termination or settlement, a certain number of shares of common stock; and (b) a 1/20, or 5%, undivided beneficial ownership interest in $1,000 principal amount of SJI’s 2018 Series A 3.70% Remarketable Junior Subordinated Notes due 2031. SJI will pay the holder quarterly contract adjustment payments at a rate of 3.55% per year on the stated amount of $50 per Equity Unit, in respect of each purchase contract, subject to the Company's right to defer these payments. No deferral period will extend beyond the purchase contract settlement date. The contract adjustment payments are payable quarterly on January 15, April 15, July 15 and October 15 of each year (except that if such date is not a business day, contract adjustment payments will be payable on the following business day, without adjustment), commencing on July 15, 2018. The contract adjustment payments will be subordinated to all of the Company's existing and future “Priority Indebtedness” and will be structurally subordinated to all liabilities of our subsidiaries. The present value of the contract adjustment payments due through April 15, 2021 are initially charged to Shareholders’ Equity, with an offsetting credit to Other Current and Noncurrent Liabilities on the consolidated balance sheet. These liabilities are accreted over the life of the purchase contract by interest charges to the income statement based on a constant rate calculation. Subsequent contract adjustment payments reduce this liability. This offering resulted in gross proceeds of approximately $287.5 million, with net proceeds, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions, of $278.9 million. As of December 31, 2018, the net proceeds, after amortization of the underwriting discounts, are recorded as Long-Term Debt on the consolidated balance sheets (see Note 14).

SJI's EPS — SJI's Basic EPS is based on the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding. The incremental shares required for inclusion in the denominator for the diluted EPS calculation were 777,603 and 112,590 shares for the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2016, respectively. For the year ended December 31, 2017, incremental shares of 141,750 were not included in the denominator for the diluted EPS calculation because they would have an antidilutive effect on EPS. These shares relate to SJI’s restricted stock as discussed in Note 2, along with, for the year ended December 31, 2018, the impact of the Forward Shares and Equity Units discussed above, accounted for under the treasury stock method.

DIVIDENDS PER SHARE - Dividends per share were $1.13, $1.10 and $1.07 for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively.

DRP — SJI offers a DRP which allows participating shareholders to purchase shares of SJI common stock by automatic reinvestment of dividends or optional purchases. SJI currently purchases shares on the open market to fund share purchases by DRP participants, and as a result SJI did not raise any equity capital through the DRP in 2017 or 2018. SJI does not intend to issue equity capital via the DRP in 2019.

RETAINED EARNINGS:

The Utilities are limited by their regulatory authorities on the amount of cash dividends or other distributions they are able to transfer to their parent, specifically of which could impact their capitalization structure. In addition, various loan agreements may contain restrictions regarding the amount of cash dividends or other distributions that the Utilities may pay on its common stock. As of December 31, 2018, these loan restrictions did not affect the amount that may be distributed from the Utilities's retained earnings.

SJG declared and paid cash dividends of $20.0 million in 2017 to SJI. Cash dividends were not declared or paid by SJG to SJI in 2018 or 2016. SJG received a $40.0 million and $65.0 million equity contribution from SJI in 2017 and 2016, respectively; there was no equity contribution to SJG in 2018. Future equity contributions will occur on an as needed basis.