	Three Months Ended
	March 31, 2021
Actual number of shares of common stock outstanding
Beginning of period		357,644,935
Shares of common stock issued through compensation plans		852,258
Employee benefit trust activity		(62	)
End of period		358,497,131

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 years ended December 31, 2020 and the three months ended March 31, 2021, respectively.

Declaration Date	Record Date	Payment Date	Dividend Per Share
February 20, 2020	March 5, 2020	March 19, 2020	$	0.06
April 16, 2020	June 4, 2020	June 18, 2020	$	0.06
July 16, 2020	August 20, 2020	September 3, 2020	$	0.06
October 27, 2020	November 19, 2020	December 3, 2020	$	0.06
February 4, 2021	March 4, 2021	March 18, 2021	$	0.06

On April 22, 2021, the Board declared a cash dividend of $0.06 per share on the Company’s common stock. The dividend is payable on June 17, 2021 to shareholders of record at the close of business on June 3, 2021.

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

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 and depending on Nielsen’s evaluation of market conditions and other factors. This program has been executed within the limitations of the authority granted Nielsen on August 6, 2015, which was extended by the authority approved by Nielsen’s shareholders at its annual general meeting held on May 12, 2020. Nielsen has requested approval from its shareholders at its annual general meeting to be held on May 25, 2021 to renew this authority for a period of one year.

As of March 31, 2021, there were 39,426,521 shares of the Company’s 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 three months ended March 31, 2021.