Stockholders’ Equity and Earnings per Share

In November 2018, the Company’s board of directors increased the quarterly cash dividend by 5% from $0.38 per share to $0.40 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, 2018, the Company purchased 1.4 million shares of its common stock for a total of $125.8 million, which excluded $24.0 million of September 2018 purchases that cash settled in October 2018, to complete its authorization under this program.

In October 2018, the Company's board of directors authorized a new 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, 2018, the Company purchased 1.3 million shares of its common stock for a total of $100.0 million, which included $10.8 million of December 2018 purchases that cash settled in January 2019. As of December 31 2018, the Company had $900.0 million of availability remaining under this program.

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

The following illustrates the components of diluted weighted average shares outstanding for the periods indicated:



	Three months ended December 31,
(in thousands)	2018	2017
Weighted average common shares outstanding - basic	212,054	218,323
Dilutive effect of stock options and restricted stock units	1,915	2,499
Weighted average common shares outstanding - diluted	213,969	220,822

The potentially dilutive stock options and restricted stock units that were antidilutive for the three months ended December 31, 2018 and 2017 were 3.8 million and 4.6 million, respectively.