Stockholders' Equity

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2018

Stockholders' Equity Note [Abstract]

Stockholders' Equity Note Disclosure [Text Block]

20. Stockholders' Equity

The Company has the authority to issue up to 100,000 shares of $100 par preferred stock and up to 500,000,000 shares of $1.00 par common stock. There were no issuances of preferred stock. As of December 31, 2018 and 2017, the Company issued 257,822,352 and 256,992,261 shares of common stock and had 112,905,810 and 102,168,868 treasury shares, held at cost, respectively.

Share Repurchases

During the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017, under the January 2015 authorization which expired on January 9, 2018, the Company repurchased 440,608 and 1,059,682 shares of common stock at a total cost of $44,977 and $105,023, or $102.08 and $99.11 per share, respectively. There were 5,271,168 shares available for repurchase under this authorization upon expiration.

In February 2018, the Company's Board of Directors approved a new standing share repurchase authorization, whereby the Company may repurchase up to 20,000,000 shares of its common stock through December 31, 2020. This share repurchase authorization replaced the January 2015 share repurchase authorization.

On May 22, 2018, the Company entered into a $700,000 accelerated share repurchase agreement (the “ASR Agreement”) with Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC (“Goldman Sachs”) to repurchase its shares in an accelerated share repurchase program (the “ASR Program”). The Company conducted the ASR Program under the February 2018 share repurchase authorization. The Company funded the ASR Program with funds received from Apergy in connection with the consummation of the Apergy spin-off.

Under the terms of the ASR Agreement, the Company paid Goldman Sachs $700,000 on May 24, 2018 and on that date received initial deliveries of 7,078,751 shares, representing a substantial majority of the shares expected to be retired over the course of the ASR Agreement. In December 2018 Goldman Sachs delivered a total of 1,463,815 shares which completed the ASR Program. During 2018, the Company received a total of 8,542,566 shares as part of the ASR Agreement. The total number of shares ultimately repurchased under the ASR Agreement was based on the volume-weighted average share price of Dover’s common stock during the calculation period of the ASR Program, less a discount, which was $81.94 over the term of the ASR Program.

Under the February 2018 share repurchase authorization, exclusive of the ASR Agreement, the Company repurchased 1,753,768 shares of common stock during the year ended December 31, 2018 at a total cost of $150,000, or $85.53 per share. As of December 31, 2018, 9,703,666 shares remain authorized for repurchase under the February 2018 share repurchase authorization.

Together with other repurchases in December 2017 and over the course of 2018, the Company has completed the $1 billion of share repurchases it announced in November 2017.