Shareholders’ Equity

Stock repurchase program. The Polaris Board of Directors has authorized the cumulative repurchase of up to 90,460,000 shares of the Company’s common stock. As of December 31, 2018, 3,251,000 shares remain available for repurchases under the Board’s authorization. The Company has made the following share repurchases (in thousands):



	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2018		2017		2016
Total number of shares repurchased and retired	3,184		1,028		2,908
Total investment	$	348,663	$	90,461	$	245,816

Stock purchase plan. Polaris maintains an employee stock purchase plan (“Purchase Plan”). A total of 3,000,000 shares of common stock are reserved for this plan. The Purchase Plan permits eligible employees to purchase common stock monthly at 95 percent of the average of the beginning and end of month stock prices. As of December 31, 2018, approximately 1,388,000 shares had been purchased under the Purchase Plan.

Dividends. Quarterly and total year cash dividends declared per common share for the year ended December 31, 2018, 2017, and 2016 were as follows:



	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2018		2017		2016
Quarterly dividend declared and paid per common share	$	0.60	$	0.58	$	0.55
Total dividends declared and paid per common share	$	2.40	$	2.32	$	2.20

On January 31, 2019, the Polaris Board of Directors declared a regular cash dividend of $0.61 per share payable on March 15, 2019 to holders of record of such shares at the close of business on March 1, 2019.

Net income per share. Basic earnings per share is computed by dividing net income available to common shareholders by the weighted average number of common shares outstanding during each period, including shares earned under The Deferred Compensation Plan for Directors (“Director Plan”), the ESOP and deferred stock units under the 2007 Omnibus Incentive Plan (“Omnibus Plan”). Diluted earnings per share is computed under the treasury stock method and is calculated to compute the dilutive effect of outstanding stock options issued under the Option Plan and certain shares issued under the Omnibus Plan. A reconciliation of these amounts is as follows (in thousands):



	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2018	2017	2016
Weighted average number of common shares outstanding	62,236	62,668	64,033
Director Plan and deferred stock units	177	157	162
ESOP	100	91	101
Common shares outstanding—basic	62,513	62,916	64,296
Dilutive effect of restricted stock awards	679	384	150
Dilutive effect of stock option awards	757	880	712
Common and potential common shares outstanding—diluted	63,949	64,180	65,158

During 2018, 2017 and 2016, the number of options that were not included in the computation of diluted income per share because the option price was greater than the market price, and therefore, the effect would have been anti-dilutive, were 1,723,000, 2,768,000 and 2,463,000, respectively.

Accumulated other comprehensive loss. Changes in the accumulated other comprehensive loss balance is as follows (in thousands):



	Foreign Currency Items			Cash Flow Hedging Derivatives			Retirement Benefit Plan Activity			Accumulated Other Comprehensive Loss
Balance as of December 31, 2017	$	(42,442	)	$	(34	)	(3,153		)	$	(45,629	)
Reclassification to the income statement	—			(9,906		)	261			(9,645		)
Change in fair value	(18,062		)	10,363			—			(7,699		)
Balance as of December 31, 2018	$	(60,504	)	$	423		$	(2,892	)	$	(62,973	)

The table below provides data about the amount of gains and losses, net of tax, reclassified from accumulated other comprehensive loss into the income statement for cash flow derivatives designated as hedging instruments and for actuarial losses related to retirement benefit plans the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017 (in thousands):



Derivatives in Cash Flow Hedging Relationships and Retirement Benefit Plan Activity	Location of Gain (Loss) Reclassified from Accumulated OCI into Income	For the Years Ended December 31,
		2018			2017
Foreign currency contracts	Other expense, net	$	9,378		$	1,410
Foreign currency contracts	Cost of sales	686			155
Interest rate contracts	Interest expense	(158		)	—
Retirement benefit plan activity	Operating expenses	(261		)	—
Total		$	9,645		$	1,565

The net amount of the existing gains or losses at December 31, 2018 that is expected to be reclassified into the income statement within the next 12 months is expected to not be material. See Note 13 for further information regarding Polaris’ derivative activities.