Capital Stock

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Preferred Stock - The Company has authorized 100,000 shares of $50 par value 4.5% cumulative preferred nonvoting stock which is callable at $52.50. There are 71,340 shares issued and 52,998 shares held in treasury at March 31, 2020. The Treasury shares at cost line on the unaudited Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet includes $1.8 million related to preferred stock. There were treasury purchases of 120 preferred stock shares during the three months ended March 31, 2020. There were no treasury purchases of preferred stock during the three months ended March 31, 2019. The Company has also authorized 1,000,000 shares of $10 par value second cumulative preferred voting stock. No shares have been issued as of March 31, 2020.

Common Stock - The Company has authorized 180,000,000 shares of no par value common stock. There were 62,081,391 shares issued as of December 31, 2019. No new shares were issued during the three months ended March 31, 2020, or 2019. There were 38,845,594 and 38,841,194 shares outstanding at March 31, 2020, and December 31, 2019, respectively.

Treasury Shares - The Company's share repurchase program authorizes up to $100.0 million to repurchase MSA common stock in the open market and in private transactions. The share purchase program has no expiration date. The maximum number of shares that may be purchased is calculated based on the dollars remaining under the program and the respective month-end closing share price. During the three months ended March 31, 2020, 175,000 shares were repurchased under this program. No shares were repurchased under the program during the three months ended March 31, 2019. We do not have any other share repurchase programs. There were 23,235,797 and 23,240,197 Treasury Shares at March 31, 2020, and December 31, 2019, respectively.

The Company issues Treasury Shares for all share based benefit plans. Shares are issued from Treasury at the average Treasury Share cost on the date of the transaction. There were 58,840 and 230,112 Treasury Shares issued for these purposes during the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively.

Common stock activity is summarized as follows:



	Three Months Ended March 31, 2020						Three Months Ended March 31, 2019
(In thousands)	Common Stock			Treasury Cost			Common Stock			Treasury Cost
Balance at beginning of period	$	229,127		$	(303,566	)	$	211,806		$	(296,390	)
Stock compensation expense	3,522			—			2,745			—
Restricted and performance stock awards	(2,239		)	2,239			(2,411		)	2,411
Stock options exercised	1,757			976			959			506
Treasury shares purchased	—			(7,617		)	—			(7,446		)
Share repurchase program	—			(20,113		)	—			—
Balance at end of period	$	232,167		$	(328,081	)	$	213,099		$	(300,919	)