Earnings Per Share:

Basic and diluted earnings per share for the three-month and six-month periods ended June 30, 2018 and 2017 are calculated as follows (in thousands, except per share amounts):



	Three Months Ended June 30,				Six Months Ended June 30,
	2018		2017		2018		2017
Basic earnings per share
Numerator:
Net income attributable to Albemarle Corporation	$	302,461	$	103,333	$	434,221	$	154,546
Denominator:
Weighted-average common shares for basic earnings per share	109,671		110,686		110,176		111,336
Basic earnings per share	$	2.76	$	0.93	$	3.94	$	1.39

Diluted earnings per share
Numerator:
Net income attributable to Albemarle Corporation	$	302,461	$	103,333	$	434,221	$	154,546
Denominator:
Weighted-average common shares for basic earnings per share	109,671		110,686		110,176		111,336
Incremental shares under stock compensation plans	988		1,419		1,087		1,361
Weighted-average common shares for diluted earnings per share	110,659		112,105		111,263		112,697
Diluted earnings per share	$	2.73	$	0.92	$	3.90	$	1.37

On February 23, 2018, the Company increased the regular quarterly dividend by 5% to $0.335 per share. On May 8, 2018, the Company declared a cash dividend of $0.335 per share, which was paid on July 2, 2018 to shareholders of record at the close of business as of June 15, 2018. On July 26, 2018, the Company declared a cash dividend of $0.335 per share, which is payable on October 1, 2018 to shareholders of record at the close of business as of September 14, 2018.

Under our existing Board authorized share repurchase program, the Company entered into an accelerated share repurchase (“ASR”) agreement with a financial institution on May 11, 2018. Under the ASR agreement, in the second quarter of 2018, the Company paid $250 million from available cash on hand and received and retired 2,354,133 shares of our common stock with a fair market value of $230 million, which reduced the Company’s weighted average shares outstanding for purposes of calculating basic and diluted earnings per share for the three-month and six-month periods ended June 30, 2018. 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 third quarter of 2018, 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 June 30, 2018, there were 10,304,784 remaining shares available for repurchase under the Company’s authorized share repurchase program due to shares previously repurchased under this program to date.