Stockholders’ Equity

Common Stock

The Company had no preferred shares outstanding and had common shares outstanding for the three years ended December 31, 2017 as follows:



	Year Ended December 31,
	2017	2016	2015
Balance, beginning of year	116,416,900	101,517,009	98,828,098
Issuance of common stock	8,395,607	14,063,100	2,493,171
Non-vested stock-based awards, net of withheld shares and forfeitures	319,086	836,791	195,740
Balance, end of year	125,131,593	116,416,900	101,517,009

Equity Offering

On August 14, 2017, the Company issued 8,337,500 shares of common stock par value $0.01 per share, at $30.90 per share in an underwritten public offering pursuant to the Company's existing effective registration statement. The net proceeds of the offering, after underwriting discount and offering expenses, were approximately $247.1 million.

At-The-Market Equity Offering Program

The Company has in place an at-the-market equity offering program to sell shares of the Company’s common stock from time to time in at-the-market sales transactions. The following table details the shares sold under this program.



	Shares Sold	Sales Price Per Share	Net Proceeds (in millions)
2017	—	NA	$	—
2016	4,795,601	$28.31 - $33.66	$	144.6
2015	2,434,239	$25.00 - $29.15	$	65.8

On February 19, 2016, the Company entered into sales agreements with five investment banks to allow sales under its at-the-market equity offering program of up to 10,000,000 shares of common stock. A previous sales agreement with one investment bank was terminated effective February 17, 2016. No shares were sold related to this program during 2017. On May 5, 2017, the Company entered into a sales agreement with a sixth investment bank in connection with the same allotment of shares. The Company has 5,868,697 authorized shares remaining available to be sold under the current sales agreements as of February 14, 2018.

Dividends Declared

During 2017, the Company declared and paid common stock dividends aggregating $1.20 per share ($0.30 per share per quarter).

On February 13, 2018, the Company declared a quarterly common stock dividend in the amount of $0.30 per share payable on March 6, 2018 to stockholders of record on February 23, 2018.

Common Stock Authorization

On May 2, 2017, the Company's shareholders approved an amendment to the Company's Articles of Incorporation to increase the number of authorized shares of common stock from 150,000,000 to 300,000,000.

Authorization to Repurchase Common Stock

The Company’s Board of Directors has authorized management to repurchase up to 3,000,000 shares of the Company’s common stock. As of December 31, 2017, the Company had not repurchased any shares under this authorization. The Company may elect, from time to time, to repurchase shares either when market conditions are appropriate or as a means to reinvest excess cash flows. Such purchases, if any, may be made either in the open market or through privately negotiated transactions.

Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income (Loss)

During the year ended December 31, 2017, the Company entered into two interest rate swaps to hedge the variable cash flows associated with existing variable-rate debt. The Company recorded a loss in accumulated other comprehensive loss of approximately $0.1 million as of December 31, 2017. The Company continues to amortize the 2015 settlement of forward-starting interest rate swaps. This amount will be reclassified out of accumulated other comprehensive loss impacting net income over the 10-year term of the associated senior note issuance. See Note 10 for more information regarding the Company's derivative instruments.

The following table represents the changes in accumulated other comprehensive loss during the year ended December 31, 2017:



(Dollars in thousands)	Interest Rate Swaps
Beginning balance	$	(1,401	)
Other comprehensive loss before reclassifications	176
Amounts reclassified from accumulated other comprehensive income (loss)	(74		)
Net current-period other comprehensive income	102
Ending balance	$	(1,299	)

The following table represents the details regarding the reclassifications from Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) during the year ended December 31, 2017:



Details about accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) components	Amount reclassified from accumulated other comprehensive income (loss)		Affected line item in the statement where net income is presented
(Dollars in thousands)
Amounts reclassified from accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) related to settled interest rate swaps	$	169	Interest Expense
Amounts reclassified from accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) related to current interest rate swaps	7		Interest Expense
	$	176