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Shareholders’ equity and earnings per share
 12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2021
Equity [Abstract]  
Shareholders' equity and earnings per share Shareholders’ equity and earnings per share
Share repurchases
On April 20, 2021, the Company's Board of Directors (the "Board") authorized the repurchase of the Company's common stock in an aggregate amount of up to $350,000. Following the transactions described below, a total of $137,972 remains available for share repurchases under this authorization as of December 31, 2021.
On May 6, 2021, the Company repurchased approximately 53,500 shares for $3,615 from a private stockholder based upon the average stock price on that day.
On May 10, 2021, the Company entered into an accelerated share repurchase agreement ("ASR Agreement") with a financial institution to repurchase outstanding shares of the Company's common stock. In exchange for an upfront payment of $150,000, which was funded with available cash on hand, the financial institution delivered 1,751,825 initial shares to the Company, representing 80% of the expected number of shares to be repurchased during the repurchase period based upon the closing stock price on May 10, 2021 of $68.50 per share. The initial shares received were retired by the Company. The final number of shares repurchased and retired was based on the Company's volume-weighted average share price during the repurchase period, less a discount and subject to certain adjustments (the "Settlement Price").
Pursuant to the ASR Agreement, the financial institution elected to accelerate the settlement of the transaction in two tranches. On July 21, 2021, the financial institution transferred 167,743 additional shares to the Company based upon an effective Settlement Price of $66.52 and a notional value of $50,000, or one third of the total $150,000 prepayment. On July 26, 2021, the financial institution transferred 336,996 additional shares to the Company upon full settlement of the remaining $100,000 notional value of the transaction at the final Settlement Price of $66.45.
On October 25, 2021, the Company entered into a Rule 10b5-1 Repurchase Plan with a financial institution to repurchase outstanding shares of the Company's common stock pursuant to its Board authorization. The Company repurchased and retired 976,191 shares for $58,413 prior to the termination of the trading period on November 23, 2021.
The costs of these share repurchases were allocated to "Capital in excess of stated value" on the Company's Consolidated Balance Sheet as of December 31, 2021.
The Company occasionally repurchases shares of its common stock to satisfy employee tax withholding obligations in association with the exercise of stock appreciation rights, restricted stock, and performance-based stock awards. These repurchases, which are not part of a publicly announced plan or program, totaled 99,824 shares during 2021, 148,680 shares during 2020, and 169,290 shares during 2019, at a cost of $6,057, $8,483 and $9,608, respectively.
Earnings per share
The following table sets forth the computation of basic and diluted earnings per share (in thousands, except per share data):
202120202019
Numerator:
Net (loss)/income attributable to Sonoco$(85,477)$207,463 $291,785 
Denominator:
Weighted average common shares outstanding99,608 100,939 100,742 
Dilutive effect of stock-based compensation— 270 434 
Diluted outstanding shares99,608 101,209 101,176 
Per common share:
(Loss)/Income available to common shareholders:
Basic$(0.86)$2.06 $2.90 
Diluted$(0.86)$2.05 $2.88 
Cash dividends$1.80 $1.72 $1.70 
No adjustments were made to "Net income/(loss) attributable to Sonoco" in the computations of net income/(loss) attributable to Sonoco per common share.
Potentially dilutive securities are calculated in accordance with the treasury stock method. For stock appreciation rights (SARs), in particular, the treasury stock method assumes the proceeds from the exercise of all dilutive SARs are used to repurchase the Company’s common stock. Certain SARs are not dilutive because either the exercise price is greater than the average market price of the stock during the reporting period or assumed repurchases from proceeds from the exercise of the SARs were antidilutive.

The average number of shares that were not dilutive and therefore not included in the computation of diluted (loss) income per share was as follows for the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019 (in thousands):
202120202019
Anti-dilutive stock appreciation rights202 772 475 
These stock appreciation rights may become dilutive in future periods if the market price of the Company’s common stock appreciates.
Diluted earnings per share is computed by dividing net income by the weighted average shares outstanding, assuming all dilutive potential common shares were issued, unless doing so is anti-dilutive. Such securities have an anti-dilutive impact in those periods in which a loss is reported. Diluted net loss per share of common stock for the year ended December 31, 2021 is the same as basic net loss per share because otherwise dilutive securities are excluded from the computation of diluted net loss per share. The number of potentially dilutive securities excluded from the computation of diluted net loss per share during the year ended December 31, 2021 was $470.