Shareholders' Equity

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

Note 12—Shareholders' Equity

Share Data: A summary of common share activity is presented in the following chart.


	Common Stock
	Issued	Treasury Stock
2017:
Balance at January 1, 2017	127,218,183	(9,187,075)
Grants of restricted stock	—	9,135

Vesting of performance shares	—	119,896
Issuance of common stock due to exercise of stock options	—	1,661,808
Treasury stock acquired	—	(5,228,868)
Retirement of treasury stock	(3,000,000)	3,000,000
Balance at December 31, 2017	124,218,183	(9,625,104)
2018:
Grants of restricted stock	—	10,805
Forfeitures of restricted stock	—	(7,500)
Vesting of performance shares	—	149,898
Issuance of common stock due to exercise of stock options	—	897,622
Treasury stock acquired	—	(4,950,868)
Retirement of treasury stock	(3,000,000)	3,000,000
Balance at December 31, 2018	121,218,183	(10,525,147)
2019:
Grants of restricted stock	—	8,840

Vesting of performance shares	—	311,399
Issuance of common stock due to exercise of stock options	—	1,810,559
Treasury stock acquired	—	(5,103,591)
Retirement of treasury stock	(4,000,000)	4,000,000
Balance at December 31, 2019	117,218,183	(9,497,940)

There was no activity related to the preferred stock in years 2017 through 2019.

Acquisition of Common Shares: Globe Life shares are acquired from time to time through open market purchases under the Globe Life stock repurchase program when it is determined to be the best use of Globe Life's excess cash flows. We deem that it yields a return that is better than available alternatives and exceeds our cost of equity. When stock options are exercised, proceeds from the exercises are generally used to repurchase approximately the number of shares available with those funds in order to reduce dilution. See the following summary below:


	Globe Life Share Repurchase Program								Share Repurchase for Dilution Purposes
	Shares Acquired (in thousands)	Total Cost		Average Price		Shares Acquired (in thousands)	Total Cost		Average Price
2019	3,932	$	350,080	$	89.04	1,209	$	109,489	$	90.52
2018	4,406	371,794		84.38		571	49,955		87.54
2017	4,126	324,622		78.67		1,103	88,367		80.15

Restrictions: Restrictions exist on the flow of funds to Globe Life Inc. from its insurance subsidiaries. Statutory regulations require life insurance subsidiaries to maintain certain minimum amounts of capital and surplus. Dividends from insurance subsidiaries of Globe Life Inc. are restricted based on regulations by their states of domicile. Additionally, insurance company distributions are generally not permitted in excess of statutory surplus. Subsidiaries are also subject to certain minimum capital requirements. Subsidiaries of Globe Life paid cash dividends to the Parent Company in the amount of $480 million in 2019, $448 million in 2018, and $454 million in 2017. As of December 31, 2019, dividends from insurance subsidiaries to the Parent Company available to be paid in 2020 are limited to the amount of $412 million without regulatory approval, such that $1.0 billion was considered restricted net assets of the subsidiaries. Dividends exceeding these limitations may be available during the year pending regulatory approval. While there are no legal restrictions on the payment of dividends to shareholders from Globe Life's retained earnings, retained earnings as of December 31, 2019 were restricted by lenders’ covenants which require the Company to maintain and not distribute $4.0 billion from its total consolidated retained earnings of $5.6 billion.

Earnings per Share: A reconciliation of basic and diluted weighted-average shares outstanding used in the computation of basic and diluted earnings per share is as follows:


	Year Ended December 31,
	2019	2018	2017
Basic weighted average shares outstanding	109,213,524	112,872,581	116,342,529
Weighted average dilutive options outstanding	2,167,726	2,376,372	2,640,965
Diluted weighted average shares outstanding	111,381,250	115,248,953	118,983,494

Antidilutive shares	21,556	1,161,521	—

Antidilutive shares are excluded from the calculation of diluted earnings per share.