Stock Repurchases

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2018

Stockholders' Equity Note [Abstract]

Stock Repurchases

Stock Repurchases:

Our Board of Directors has authorized a total of $2.5 billion to repurchase shares of our common stock (collectively referred to as the "Share Repurchase Plans"), including a $500 million share repurchase authorization in March 2018. The Share Repurchase Plans authorize open market repurchase transactions and do not have a stated expiration date. As of March 31, 2018, $746 million of shares may yet be repurchased under the Share Repurchase Plans.

On February 8, 2018, the Company entered into a Fixed Dollar Accelerated Share Repurchase Transaction (the “ASR Agreement”) with MUFG Securities EMEA plc ("MUFG"), to effect an accelerated stock buyback of our common stock. Under the ASR Agreement, on February 8, 2018, we paid MUFG an initial purchase price of $150 million, and MUFG delivered to us common stock, representing approximately 85% of the shares expected to be purchased under the ASR Agreement. The ASR was completed in April of 2018 and MUFG delivered additional shares for a total of 0.7 million shares of common stock repurchased as part of this ASR Agreement.

We also repurchased 0.1 million shares for $18.1 million during the three months ended March 31, 2018 from employees who surrendered their shares to satisfy minimum tax withholding obligations upon the exercise of long-term incentive awards.