Capital Stock, Dividends and Common Stock Repurchase Program

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2024

Capital Stock, Dividends and Common Stock Repurchase Program

Capital Stock, Dividends and Common Stock Repurchase Program

13.  Capital Stock, Dividends and Common Stock Repurchase Program

Capital Stock

We have 1.5 billion shares of authorized common stock with a par value of $0.01 per common share. As of December 31, 2024, we had 401.5 million shares of common stock issued and outstanding. The Board of Directors is authorized to issue preferred stock in series, and with respect to each series, to fix its designation, relative rights (including voting, dividend, conversion, sinking fund, and redemption rights), preferences (including dividends and liquidation) and limitations. We have 10 million shares of authorized preferred stock, $0.01 par value, none of which is currently outstanding.

Dividends

Our quarterly dividends have been declared by our Board of Directors. Cash dividends declared and paid were $1,210 million in 2024, or $3.00 per common share, $1,136 million in 2023, or $2.80 per common share, and $1,077 million in 2022, or $2.60 per common share.

In December 2024, we announced that our Board of Directors expects to increase the quarterly dividend from $0.75 to $0.825 per share for dividends declared in 2025. However, all future dividend declarations are at the discretion of our Board of Directors and depend on various factors, including our net earnings, financial condition, cash required for future business plans, growth and acquisitions and other factors the Board of Directors may deem relevant.

Common Stock Repurchase Program

The Company repurchases shares of its common stock as part of capital allocation programs authorized by our Board of Directors. Share repurchases are a part of our long-term strategy and incorporated into our overall capital allocation plan to enhance our Company’s performance, in conjunction with our other uses of capital, and to return value to stockholders in a tax-efficient manner. Share repurchases during the reported periods were completed through accelerated share repurchase (“ASR”) agreements and, to a lesser extent, open market transactions. The terms of these ASR agreements required that we deliver cash at the beginning of each ASR repurchase period. In exchange, we received a portion of the total shares expected to be repurchased based on the then-current market price of our common stock. The remaining shares repurchased over the course of each repurchase period are delivered to us once the repurchase period is complete. In the table below, shares repurchased are measured and reported based on the period shares are delivered to us, which can differ from the period cash is delivered to a repurchase agent for the value of such shares. The following is a summary of our share repurchases under our common stock repurchase program for the year ended December 31:

	2024(a)		2023(b)		2022(c)
Shares repurchased (in thousands)		1,494		7,840		9,796
Weighted average price per share	$	196.95	$	158.47	$	160.26
Total repurchases (in millions)	$	262	$	1,242	$	1,570

(a) We executed and completed one ASR agreement during 2024 to repurchase $250 million of our common stock and received 1.2 million shares in connection with this ASR agreement. In February 2024, we also received 0.2 million shares pursuant to our October 2023 ASR agreement based on a final weighted average price of $175.29.

We also repurchased an additional 0.1 million shares of our common stock in open market transactions in compliance with Rule 10b5-1 and Rule 10b 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”) for $12 million, inclusive of per-share commission.

(b) We executed and completed three ASR agreements during 2023 to repurchase $950 million of our common stock and received 6.0 million shares in connection with these ASR agreements. Additionally, in October 2023, we executed an ASR agreement to repurchase $300 million of our common stock. At the beginning of the repurchase period, we delivered $300 million in cash and received 1.5 million shares based on a stock price of $161.38. The ASR agreement completed in February 2024, at which time we received 0.2 million additional shares based on a final weighted average price of $175.29.

We also repurchased an additional 0.3 million shares of our common stock in open market transactions in compliance with Rule 10b5-1 and Rule 10b 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”) for $52 million, inclusive of per-share commissions.

The IRA, which was enacted into law on August 16, 2022, imposed a nondeductible 1% excise tax on the net value of certain stock repurchases made after December 31, 2022. We reflected the applicable excise tax in treasury stock

as part of the cost basis of the stock repurchased. The above discussion of our common stock repurchases in 2023 is excluding the 1% excise tax.

(c) We executed and completed four ASR agreements during 2022 to repurchase $1.417 billion of our common stock and received 8.8 million shares in connection with these ASR agreements. We also repurchased an additional 0.6 million shares of our common stock in open market transactions in compliance with Rule 10b5-1 and Rule 10b 18 of the Exchange Act for $83 million, inclusive of per-share commissions. Shares repurchased in 2022 include 0.4 million shares of our common stock for $70 million pursuant to our December 2021 ASR agreement that completed in January 2022.

As a result of the Stericycle acquisition, the Company has temporarily suspended share repurchases. We expect to resume share repurchase once the Company’s leverage returns to targeted levels, which is currently projected to be about 18 months after the November 2024 acquisition of Stericycle.