Capital Stock, Dividends and Common Stock Repurchase Program

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

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, 2020, we had 422.8 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 $927 million in 2020, or $2.18 per common share, $876 million in 2019, or $2.05 per common share, and $802 million in 2018, or $1.86 per common share.

In December 2020, we announced that our Board of Directors expects to increase the quarterly dividend from $0.545 to $0.575 per share for dividends declared in 2021. 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 year ended December 31:


	2020(a)		2019(b)		2018(c)
Shares repurchased (in thousands)	$	3,687		2,247		11,673
Weighted average price per share	$	108.92	$	108.60	$	86.35
Total repurchases (in millions)	$	402	$	244	$	1,008

(a)

During 2020, we executed and completed an ASR agreement to repurchase $313 million of our common stock and received 2.8 million shares in connection with this ASR agreement. We also repurchased an additional 0.9 million shares of our common stock in open market transactions in compliance with Rule 10b5-1 and Rule 10b-18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”) for $89 million, inclusive of per-share commissions.

(b)

During 2019, we executed and completed an ASR agreement to repurchase $180 million of our common stock and received 1.6 million shares in connection with this ASR agreement. We also repurchased an additional 0.7 million shares of our common stock in open market transactions in compliance with Rule 10b5-1 and Rule 10b-18 of the Exchange Act for $64 million, inclusive of per-share commissions.

(c)

During 2018, we executed and completed four ASR agreements to repurchase $850 million of our common stock and we received 9.8 million shares in connection with these ASR agreements. We also repurchased an additional 1.9 million shares of our common stock in open market transactions in compliance with Rule 10b5-1 and Rule 10b-18 of the Exchange Act for $158 million, inclusive of per-share commissions, which includes $4 million paid in 2019.

We announced in December 2020 that the Board of Directors has authorized up to $1.35 billion in future share repurchases, which supersedes and replaces remaining authority under any prior Board of Directors’ authorization for share repurchases. 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.