COMMON STOCK REPURCHASES AND CASH DIVIDENDS:

Common Stock Repurchases

As of December 31, 2016, the Company had approximately $23.6 million remaining under its stock repurchase program. In July 2017, the Company’s board of directors authorized the use of an additional $30.0 million for the repurchase of the Company’s common stock, with repurchases to be executed according to pre-defined price/volume guidelines. In the nine months ended September 30, 2017, the Company purchased approximately 96,000 shares of its common stock for approximately $6.7 million. As of September 30, 2017, the Company had approximately $46.8 million remaining under its repurchase program, which has no expiration date. Authorization of future repurchase programs is at the discretion of the board of directors and will depend on the Company’s financial condition, results of operations, capital requirements, business conditions and other factors.

Cash Dividends

In January 2017, the Company’s board of directors declared four quarterly cash dividends in the amount of $0.14 per share to be paid to stockholders of record at the end of each quarter in 2017. For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017, and September 30, 2016, cash dividends declared and paid were as follows:



	Three Months Ended				Nine Months Ended
(In thousands, except per share amounts)	September 30, 2017		September 30, 2016		September 30, 2017		September 30, 2016
Dividends declared and paid	$	4,164	$	3,771	$	12,463	$	11,254
Dividends declared per common share	$	0.14	$	0.13	$	0.42	$	0.39