Share Repurchase Program

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2012

Share Repurchase Program

Share Repurchase Program

NOTE 8 – SHARE REPURCHASE PROGRAM 

Under the Company’s share repurchase program, as approved by the Board of Directors, the Company may, from time to time, repurchase shares of its common stock, solely through open market purchases effected through a broker dealer at prevailing market prices, based on a variety of factors such as price, corporate trading policy requirements and overall market conditions.  The Company and its Board of Directors may increase or otherwise modify, renew, suspend or terminate the share repurchase program at any time, without prior notice.  The Company’s Board of Directors approved resolutions to increase the authorization under the share repurchase program by an additional $500 million on June 1, 2012, and an additional $500 million on August 10, 2012, raising the cumulative authorization under the share repurchase program to $2.5 billion.  The additional $500 million authorizations are effective for a 3-year period, beginning on June 1, 2012 and August 10, 2012, respectively.   

The following table identifies shares of the Company’s common stock that have been repurchased as part of the Company’s publicly announced share repurchase program (in thousands, except per share data): 

	For the Three Months Ended September 30,				For the Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2012		2011		2012		2011
Shares repurchased		6,359		8,162		12,647		14,074
Average price per share	$	84.76	$	61.51	$	89.62	$	59.69
Total investment	$	538,972	$	502,067	$	1,133,328	$	839,979

As of September 30, 2012, the Company had $390.4 million remaining under its share repurchase program.  Subsequent to the end of the third quarter and through the date of this filing, the Company repurchased an additional 1.6 million shares of its common stock under its share repurchase program at an average price of $83.68 for a total investment of $136.6 million.  The Company has repurchased a total of 30.2 million shares of its common stock under its share repurchase program since the inception of the program in January of 2011 through November 8, 2012, at an average price of $74.49, for a total aggregate investment of $2.2 billion.