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Stockholders' Equity
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2020
Stockholders' Equity  
Stockholders' Equity

10.  Stockholders’ Equity

On February 18, 2020, our Board of Directors (“Board”) approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.36 per share that was paid on March 20, 2020 to the stockholders of record at the close of business on March 9, 2020. Future decisions to pay or to increase or decrease dividends are at the discretion of the Board and will be dependent on our operating performance, financial condition, capital expenditure requirements, limitations on cash distributions pursuant to the terms and conditions of the Facility and applicable law, and such other factors that our Board considers relevant.

Under authorization by our Board to repurchase up to 56.0 million shares of our common stock, we have cumulatively repurchased 53.0 million shares at a total cost of $1,695.7 million through March 31, 2020, including 0.1 million shares at a cost of $2.6 million repurchased during the first quarter of fiscal 2020. Our objectives regarding share repurchases are to offset the dilution to our shares outstanding that results from equity compensation grants and to supplement our earnings per share growth. Our share repurchase authorization does not have an expiration date, does not require us to purchase a specific number of shares and may be modified, suspended or terminated at any time. Shares may be repurchased in the open market or through privately negotiated transactions at times and prices considered appropriate by us. We make the determination to repurchase shares based on several factors, including current and forecasted operating cash flows, capital needs associated with new restaurant development and maintenance of existing locations, dividend payments, debt levels and cost of borrowing, obligations associated with the Acquisitions, our share price and current market conditions. The timing and number of shares repurchased are also subject to legal constraints and financial covenants under the Facility that limit share repurchases based on a defined ratio.

To preserve liquidity during the COVID-19 pandemic and in conjunction with the terms of our Facility, as amended on May 1, 2020, our Board of Directors suspended the quarterly dividend on our common stock, as well as share repurchases. (See Notes 7 and 15 for further discussion of our Facility.) As further discussed in Note 15, to increase our liquidity given the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our operations, we sold 200,000 shares of Series A Convertible Preferred Stock on April 20, 2020 for an aggregate purchase price of $200 million.