Note 9 - Dividends and Dividend Equivalents

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2017

Notes to Financial Statements

Dividends And Dividend Equivalents [Text Block]

9

.

DIVIDENDS AND DIVIDEND EQUIVALENTS

Cash

Dividend Program

In

June 2014,

the Board of Directors approved a dividend program

 pursuant to which the Company intends to pay quarterly cash dividends on its common stock. Based on the Company’s historical practice, stockholders of record as of the last business day of the quarter are entitled to receive the quarterly cash dividends when and if declared by the Board of Directors, which are payable to the stockholders in the following month. The Board of Directors declared the following cash dividends (in thousands, except per-share amounts): 

	Year Ended December 31,
	2017		2016		2015
Dividend declared per share	$	0.80	$	0.80	$	0.80
Total amount	$	33,145	$	32,434	$	31,618

As of D

ecember

31,

2017

and

2016,

accrued dividends totaled

$8.3

million and

$8.2

million, respectively.

The declaration of any future cash dividends is at the discretion of the Board of Directors and will depend on, among other things, the Company

’s financial condition, results of operations, capital requirements, business conditions, statutory requirements of Delaware law, compliance with the terms of future indebtedness and credit facilities and other factors that the Board of Directors

may

deem relevant, as well as a determination that cash dividends are in the best interests of the stockholders.

The Company anticipates

that cash used for future dividend payments will come from its current domestic cash and cash generated from ongoing U.S. operations. In addition, the Company currently plans to repatriate cash from its Bermuda subsidiary to fund future dividends and continue to indefinitely reinvest its earnings from other foreign subsidiaries. See Note

12

for further discussion.

Cash Dividend Equivalent Rights

Under the Company

’s stock plans, outstanding RSUs contain rights to receive cash dividend equivalents, which entitle employees who hold RSUs to the same dividend value per share as holders of common stock. The dividend equivalents are accumulated and paid to the employees when the underlying RSUs vest. Dividend equivalents accumulated on the underlying RSUs are forfeited if the employees do

not

fulfill their service requirement and the awards do

not

vest. As of

December 31, 2017

and

2016,

accrued dividend equivalents totaled

$5.8

million and

$4.1

million, respectively.