During the three months ended March 31, 2020, portions of awards of restricted common stock and market-based share awards granted to certain of the Company's officers and other employees vested. The vesting of these awards, granted pursuant to the Amended Incentive Award Plan, resulted in federal and state income tax liabilities for the recipients. As permitted by the terms of the Amended Incentive Award Plan and the award grants, certain executive officers and employees elected to surrender 44.5 thousand shares of common stock valued at $2.3 million, solely to pay the associated statutory tax withholdings during the three months ended March 31, 2020.

In November 2016, the Board of Directors approved a $500 million ATM Program. The agreement provides for the offer and sale of shares of the Corporation’s common stock having an aggregate gross sales price of up to $500.0 million through the agents, as its sales agents or, if applicable, as forward sellers for forward purchasers, or directly to the agents acting as principals. The Company may sell shares in amounts and at times to be determined by the Company but has no obligation to sell any shares in the ATM program. Since inception of the ATM Program through March 31, 2020, 5.6 million shares of the Corporation’s common stock have been sold, of which 0.4 million were sold during the three months ended March 31, 2020 at a weighted average price per share of $49.30, generating $17.9 million in gross proceeds. 3.8 million of these sales were through forward sales agreements, of which 0.4 million were physically settled in shares during the three months ended March 31, 2020. There were no open forward sales agreements under the ATM Program as of March 31, 2020. Aggregate gross proceeds capacity of $246.3 million remained available under the program as of March 31, 2020.

As of March 31, 2020, the Company had 6.9 million shares of 6.00% Series A Preferred Stock outstanding. The Series A Preferred Stock pays cumulative cash dividends at the rate of 6.00% per annum on the liquidation preference of $25.00 per share (equivalent to $0.375 per share on a quarterly basis and $1.50 per share on an annual basis).

For the three months ended March 31, 2020, the Company's Board of Directors declared the following dividends:

Declaration Date

Dividend Per Share

Record Date

Total Amount

(in thousands)

Payment Date

Common Stock

February 27, 2020

0.625

March 31, 2020

64,338

April 15, 2020

Preferred Stock

February 27, 2020

0.375

March 13, 2020

2,588

March 31, 2020

The common stock dividend declared on February 27, 2020 is included in accounts payable, accrued expenses and other liabilities in the consolidated balance sheets as of March 31, 2020.