Equity

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2018

Equity [Abstract]

Equity

Equity

The decrease in common stock during the nine months ended September 30, 2018, was primarily due to the repurchases of 23.1 million shares, of which 17.6 million shares were acquired pursuant to the Company's previously announced share repurchase plan. In addition, 5.5 million shares were repurchased from the former CEO and subsequently retired, pursuant to his previously disclosed retirement agreement, at a price of $20.98 per share. As previously announced, these share repurchases were separately approved by the Company's Board of Directors and were not repurchased as part of the Company’s existing share repurchase plan. The share repurchases for the first nine months of 2018 were partially offset by the issuance of 4.9 million shares of the Company’s common stock under the Company’s stock-based compensation plans. The total net decrease was 18.2 million shares.

The Company announced a $0.01 per share increase in its quarterly cash dividend rate during the first quarter of 2018. As such, the Company recorded a cash dividend of $0.11 during the third quarter of 2018 as compared to a cash dividend of $0.10 per share during the third quarter of 2017. The third quarter 2018 dividend of $28.8 million was declared on August 29, 2018, and was paid on October 17, 2018.