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Shareholders' Equity
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2019
Shareholders' Equity [Abstract]  
Shareholders' Equity 12.SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY

Common Stock Equivalents

The Company has outstanding stock options and restricted stock units which were considered in the Company’s diluted earnings per share calculation (see Note 16).

Stock Repurchases

The Company’s Board of Directors authorizes the Company to purchase, from time to time, outstanding Class A common stock through open market repurchases in compliance with Rule 10b-18 under the Exchange Act, and/or in privately negotiated transactions at management’s discretion based on market and business conditions, applicable legal requirements, and other factors. Once authorized, the repurchase plan has no time deadline and will continue until otherwise modified or terminated by the Company’s Board of Directors at any time in its sole discretion. Shares repurchased are retired. As of the date of this filing, the Company had $624.3 million authorization remaining under this plan.

The following is a summary of the Company’s share repurchases:

For the year ended December 31,

2019

2018

2017

Total number of shares purchased (in millions) (1)

2.0

5.0

5.9

Average price paid per share (1)

$

231.87

$

159.87

$

145.87

Total price paid (in millions) (1)

$

470.3

$

795.5

$

854.4

(1)Amounts are calculated based on the trade date. This differs from the Consolidated Statements of Cash Flow which calculates share repurchases based on the settlement date.

Registration of Additional Shares

On May 20, 2010, the Company filed a registration statement on Form S-8 with the Securities and Exchange Commission registering 15.0 million shares of the Company’s Class A common stock issuable under the 2010 Performance and Equity Incentive Plan (see Note 13).

The Company filed a shelf registration statement on Form S-4 with the Securities and Exchange Commission registering 4.0 million shares of its Class A common stock in 2007. These shares may be issued in connection with acquisitions of wireless communication towers or antenna sites and related assets or companies that own wireless communication towers, antenna sites, or related assets. During the year ended December 31, 2019, the Company issued 10,000 shares of Class A common stock under this registration statement. During the year ended December 31, 2017, the Company issued 487,963 shares of Class A common stock under this registration statement. As of December 31, 2019, the Company had approximately 1.2 million shares of Class A common stock remaining under this registration statement.

On March 5, 2018, the Company filed with the Commission an automatic shelf registration statement for well-known seasoned issuers on Form S-3ASR. This registration statement enables the Company to issue shares of its Class A common stock, preferred stock or debt securities either separately or represented by warrants, or depositary shares as well as units that include any of these securities. Under the rules governing automatic shelf registration statements, the Company will file a prospectus supplement and advise the Commission of the amount and type of securities each time it issues securities under this registration statement. For the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018, the Company did not issue any securities under this automatic shelf registration statement.

Dividends

As a REIT, the Company is required to distribute annually at least 90% of its REIT taxable income after the utilization of any available NOLs (determined before the deduction for dividends paid and excluding any net capital gain). As of December 31, 2019, $652.9 million of the federal NOLs are attributes of the REIT. The Company may use these NOLs to offset its REIT taxable income, and thus any required distributions to shareholders may be reduced or eliminated until such time as the Company’s NOLs have been fully utilized. The amount of future distributions will be determined, from time to time, by the Board of Directors to balance the Company’s goal of increasing long-term shareholder value and retaining sufficient cash to implement the Company’s current capital allocation policy, which prioritizes investment in quality assets that meet the Company’s return criteria, and then stock repurchases when the Company believes its stock price is below its intrinsic value. The actual amount, timing and frequency of future dividends,

will be at the sole discretion of the Board of Directors and will be declared based upon various factors, many of which are beyond the Company’s control.

As of December 31, 2019, the Company paid the following cash dividends:

Payable to Shareholders

of Record At the Close

Cash Paid

Aggregate Amount

Date Declared

of Business on

Per Share

Paid

Date Paid

July 29, 2019

August 28, 2019

$0.37

$41.9 million

September 25, 2019

October 25, 2019

November 21, 2019

$0.37

$41.5 million

December 19, 2019

Subsequent to December 31, 2019, the Company declared the following cash dividends:

Payable to Shareholders

Cash to

of Record At the Close

be Paid

Date Declared

of Business on

Per Share

Date to be Paid

February 20, 2020

March 10, 2020

$0.465

March 26, 2020