Stock Repurchases

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2017

Stockholders' Equity Note [Abstract]

Stock Repurchases

Stock Repurchases:

Our Board of Directors has authorized a total of $2 billion towards the repurchase of shares of our common stock (collectively referred to as the "Share Repurchase Plans"), including a $550 million share repurchase authorization in 2016. The Share Repurchase Plans authorize open market repurchase transactions and do not have a stated expiration date. As of March 31, 2017, $571 million of shares may yet be repurchased under the Share Repurchase Plans.

On February 9, 2017, the Company entered into a Fixed Dollar Accelerated Share Repurchase Transaction (the “ASR Agreement”) with J.P. Morgan Stanley, to effect an accelerated stock buyback of the Company’s common stock (the “Common Stock”).

Under the ASR Agreement, on February 9, 2017, the Company paid J.P. Morgan Stanley an initial purchase price of $75 million, and J.P. Morgan Stanley delivered to the Company approximately 0.4 million shares of Common Stock, representing approximately 85% of the shares expected to be purchased under the ASR Agreement. The ASR Agreement will be completed in the second quarter of 2017.

We also repurchased 0.1 million shares for $13.3 million during the three months ended March 31, 2017 from employees who surrendered their shares to satisfy minimum tax withholding obligations upon the exercise of long-term incentive awards.