Earnings Per Share:

Basic and diluted earnings per share from continuing operations for the three-month and nine-month periods ended September 30, 2017 and 2016 are calculated as follows (in thousands, except per share amounts):



	Three Months Ended September 30,						Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2017			2016			2017			2016
Basic earnings per share from continuing operations
Numerator:
Net income from continuing operations	$	130,193		$	114,512		$	306,539		$	428,334
Net income from continuing operations attributable to noncontrolling interests	(11,523		)	(9,477		)	(33,323		)	(28,906		)
Net income from continuing operations attributable to Albemarle Corporation	$	118,670		$	105,035		$	273,216		$	399,428
Denominator:
Weighted-average common shares for basic earnings per share	110,476			112,429			111,049			112,343
Basic earnings per share from continuing operations	$	1.07		$	0.93		$	2.46		$	3.56

Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations
Numerator:
Net income from continuing operations	$	130,193		$	114,512		$	306,539		$	428,334
Net income from continuing operations attributable to noncontrolling interests	(11,523		)	(9,477		)	(33,323		)	(28,906		)
Net income from continuing operations attributable to Albemarle Corporation	$	118,670		$	105,035		$	273,216		$	399,428
Denominator:
Weighted-average common shares for basic earnings per share	110,476			112,429			111,049			112,343
Incremental shares under stock compensation plans	1,499			1,019			1,407			788
Weighted-average common shares for diluted earnings per share	111,975			113,448			112,456			113,131
Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations	$	1.06		$	0.93		$	2.43		$	3.53

On February 23, 2017, the Company increased the regular quarterly dividend by 5% to $0.32 per share. On July 10, 2017, the Company declared a cash dividend of $0.32 per share, which was paid on October 2, 2017 to shareholders of record at the close of business as of September 15, 2017. On November 6, 2017, the Company declared a cash dividend of $0.32 per share, which is payable on January 2, 2018 to shareholders of record at the close of business as of December 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. Under the terms of the ASR agreement, on June 16, 2017, the transaction was completed and we received and retired a final settlement of 392,905 shares, calculated 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 determined that the ASR agreement met the criteria to be accounted for as a forward contract indexed to its stock and was therefore treated as an equity instrument. In total, we received and retired 2,341,083 shares under the ASR agreement, which reduced the Company’s weighted average shares outstanding for purposes of calculating basic and diluted earnings per share for the nine-month period ended September 30, 2017.

No more than 15,000,000 shares can be repurchased under the Company’s authorized share repurchase program. As of September 30, 2017, there were 12,658,917 remaining shares available for repurchase under the Company’s authorized share repurchase program.