Stockholders' Equity

6 Months Ended

Jul. 31, 2016

Notes to financial statements [Abstract]

Stockholders' Equity

Shareholders’ Equity

Capital Return Program

Beginning August 2004, our Board of Directors authorized us, subject to certain specifications, to repurchase shares of our common stock. In May 2015, the Board extended the previously authorized repurchase program through December 2018 and authorized an additional $1.62 billion under the repurchase program.

In March 2016, we entered into an accelerated share repurchase, or ASR, agreement with an investment bank, under which we made an upfront payment of $500 million to purchase shares of our common stock and received an initial delivery of 12 million shares. The shares delivered resulted in a reduction, on the delivery date, of the outstanding shares used to calculate the weighted-average common shares outstanding for basic and diluted earnings per share. The ASR agreement was settled in July 2016 with a cash payment of $9 million to the investment bank. As a result, a total of 12 million shares were repurchased under the ASR transaction for $509 million, or an average price of $42.06 per share.

During the three and six months endedJuly 31, 2016, we also paid $62 million and $124 million, respectively, in cash dividends to our shareholders, equivalent to $0.1150 per share. As a result, we returned $71 million and $633 million to shareholders during the three and six months endedJuly 31, 2016, respectively, in the form of share repurchases and dividend payments.

Through July 31, 2016, we have repurchased an aggregate of 243 million shares under our share repurchase program for a total cost of $4.36 billion. All shares delivered from these repurchases have been placed into treasury stock. As of July 31, 2016, we were authorized, subject to certain specifications, to repurchase additional shares of our common stock up to $0.96 billion.

We intend to return approximately $1.00 billion to our shareholders in fiscal year 2017 through a combination of share repurchases and cash dividends. We also declared on August 11, 2016 that we would pay our next quarterly cash dividend of $0.1150 per share on September 16, 2016, to all shareholders of record on August 25, 2016.

Convertible Preferred Stock

As of July 31, 2016 and January 31, 2016, there were no shares of preferred stock outstanding.

Common Stock

We are authorized to issue up to 2.00 billion shares of our common stock at $0.001 per share par value.