NOTE 11 – PREFERRED STOCK

At March 31, 2018, we had 1,000,000 authorized shares of preferred stock and 658,190 shares issued and outstanding of mandatory convertible preferred stock.

We declared and paid dividends of $8.8 million and $9.4 million to the preferred stock shareholders during the three months ended March 31, 2018 and 2017, respectively.

The following table provides information about our repurchases of depository shares of mandatory convertible preferred stock during the quarter ended March 31, 2018:

In millions, except share and per share data
	Number of Depository Shares Repurchased		Amount Paid for Repurchases		Average Price Paid per Share
January 1 - January 31, 2018		-	$	-	$	-
February 1 - February 28 , 2018		151,900		7.4		49.05
March 1 - March 31 , 2018		-		-		-
Total		151,900	$	7.4	$	49.05

For the three months ended March 31, 2018 and 2017, repurchases of our mandatory convertible preferred stock resulted in a $7.3 million and $4.6 million, respectively, increase in retained earnings, as we redeemed the preferred stock at a discount. The 151,900 depository shares are equivalent to 15,190 units of preferred stock.