Stockholders’ Equity and Earnings per Share

In November 2017, the Company’s board of directors increased the quarterly cash dividend by 4% from $0.365 per share to $0.380 per share.

In November 2016, the Company's board of directors authorized a share repurchase program allowing the Company to purchase up to $1.0 billion of its outstanding shares of common stock, subject to market conditions. During the three months ended December 31, 2017, the Company purchased 0.3 million shares of its common stock for a total of $22.5 million. As of December 31, 2017, the Company had $766.4 million of availability remaining under the November 2016 share repurchase program.

Basic earnings per share is computed by dividing net income by the weighted average number of shares of common stock outstanding during the periods presented. Diluted earnings per share is computed by dividing net income by the weighted average number of shares of common stock outstanding, plus the dilutive effect of stock options, restricted stock, and restricted stock units during the periods presented.



	Three months ended December 31,
(in thousands)	2017	2016
Weighted average common shares outstanding - basic	218,323	218,661
Dilutive effect of stock options, restricted stock, and restricted stock units	2,499	3,318
Weighted average common shares outstanding - diluted	220,822	221,979

The potentially dilutive stock options, restricted stock, and restricted stock units that were antidilutive for the three months ended December 31, 2017 and 2016 were 4.6 million and 5.3 million, respectively.