Earnings Per Share

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2017

Earnings Per Share:

Basic and diluted earnings per share from continuing operations for the three-month periods ended March 31, 2017 and 2016 are calculated as follows (in thousands, except per share amounts):



	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2017			2016
Basic earnings per share from continuing operations
Numerator:
Net income from continuing operations	$	62,657		$	218,236
Net income from continuing operations attributable to noncontrolling interests	(11,444		)	(7,362		)
Net income from continuing operations attributable to Albemarle Corporation	$	51,213		$	210,874
Denominator:
Weighted-average common shares for basic earnings per share	111,986			112,260
Basic earnings per share from continuing operations	$	0.46		$	1.88

Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations
Numerator:
Net income from continuing operations	$	62,657		$	218,236
Net income from continuing operations attributable to noncontrolling interests	(11,444		)	(7,362		)
Net income from continuing operations attributable to Albemarle Corporation	$	51,213		$	210,874
Denominator:
Weighted-average common shares for basic earnings per share	111,986			112,260
Incremental shares under stock compensation plans	1,303			510
Weighted-average common shares for diluted earnings per share	113,289			112,770
Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations	$	0.45		$	1.87

On February 23, 2017, the Company increased the regular quarterly dividend by 5% to $0.32 per share and declared a cash dividend of said amount for the first quarter of 2017, which was paid on April 3, 2017 to shareholders of record at the close of business as of March 15, 2017.

Under our existing Board authorized share repurchase program, the Company entered into an accelerated share repurchase (“ASR”) agreement with a financial institution on March 1, 2017. Under the ASR agreement, in March 2017, the Company paid $250 million from available cash on hand and received and retired an initial delivery of 1,948,178 shares of our common stock with a fair market value of $200 million, which reduced the Company’s weighted average shares outstanding for purposes of calculating basic and diluted earnings per share for the three-month period ended March 31, 2017. The total number of shares to ultimately be delivered under the ASR agreement will be determined upon completion of the ASR agreement, which will be by the end of the second quarter of 2017, and will generally be based on the daily Rule 10b-18 volume-weighted average prices of the Company’s common stock over the term of the ASR agreement, less an agreed discount. The Company has determined that the ASR agreement meets the criteria to be accounted for as a forward contract indexed to its stock and is therefore being treated as an equity instrument. Although the ASR agreement can be settled, at the Company’s option, in cash or in shares of common stock, the Company intends to settle in shares of common stock.

No more than 15,000,000 shares can be repurchased under the Company’s authorized share repurchase program. As of March 31, 2017, there were 13,051,822 remaining shares available for repurchase under the Company’s authorized share repurchase program.