Shareholders' Equity

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

13. Shareholders’ Equity

Common stock activity is as follows:

	Year Ended December 31,
	2019		2018			2017
Actual number of shares of common stock outstanding
Beginning of period		355,271,737		355,944,976			357,465,614
Shares of common stock issued through compensation plans		835,057		1,587,947			1,578,917
Employee benefit trust activity		43,089		(41,030	)		269,284
Repurchases of common stock		-		(2,220,156	)		(3,368,839	)
End of period		356,149,883		355,271,737			355,944,976

On January 31, 2013, the Company’s Board of Directors (the “Board”) adopted a cash dividend policy to pay quarterly cash dividends on its outstanding common stock. The following table represents the cash dividends declared by the Board and paid to shareholders for the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2019, respectively.

Declaration Date	Record Date	Payment Date	Dividend Per Share
February 21, 2018	March 7, 2018	March 21, 2018	$	0.34
April 19, 2018	June 6, 2018	June 20, 2018	$	0.35
July 19, 2018	August 22, 2018	September 5, 2018	$	0.35
October 18, 2018	November 21, 2018	December 5, 2018	$	0.35
February 21, 2019	March 7, 2019	March 21, 2019	$	0.35
April 18, 2019	June 5, 2019	June 19, 2019	$	0.35
July 18, 2019	August 22, 2019	September 5, 2019	$	0.35
November 3, 2019	November 21, 2019	December 5, 2019	$	0.06

On November 3, 2019 the Board approved a plan to reduce the quarterly cash dividend, with the goal of strengthening Nielsen’s balance sheet and providing added flexibility to invest for growth. On February 20, 2020, the Board declared a cash dividend of $0.06 per share on Nielsen’s common stock. The dividend is payable on March 19, 2020 to shareholders of record at the close of business on March 5, 2020.

The dividend policy and the payment of future cash dividends are subject to the discretion of the Company’s Board of Directors.

Nielsen’s Board approved a share repurchase program, as included in the below table, for up to $2 billion in the aggregate of our outstanding common stock. The primary purpose of the program is to return value to shareholders and to mitigate dilution associated with Nielsen’s equity compensation plans.

Board Approval	Share Repurchase Authorization ($ in millions)
July 25, 2013	$	500
October 23, 2014	$	1,000
December 11, 2015	$	500
Total Share Repurchase Authorization	$	2,000

Repurchases under this program will be made in accordance with applicable securities laws from time to time in the open market or otherwise depending on Nielsen’s evaluation of market conditions and other factors. This program has been executed within the limitations of the authority granted by Nielsen’s shareholders.

As of December 31, 2019, there have been 39,426,521 shares of our common stock purchased at an average price of $44.95 per share (total consideration of approximately $1,772 million) under this program. There were no share repurchases for the year ended December 31, 2019.