Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity
ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT'S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED SHAREHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES
Common Stock and Cash Dividends
Our common stock is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the ticker symbol "ASTE".
Holders
As of February 24, 2022, there were 259 holders of record of our common stock.
Dividend Policy
We paid quarterly dividends of $0.11 per common share to shareholders in the first, second and third quarters of 2021 and the first, second, third and fourth quarters 2020. Our Board of Directors ("Board") increased the dividend payment $0.01 to a total of $0.12 per common share to shareholders for the fourth quarter of 2021. We paid cash of $10.2 million and $10.0 million for dividends in 2021 and 2020, respectively. Dividends are paid when, as and if declared at the discretion of our Board from funds legally available for that purpose. While our Board currently expects to continue regular quarterly cash dividends, the declaration and amount of future cash dividends are subject to the Board's sole discretion and their periodic review of our dividend policy and will depend upon our earnings, financial condition, liquidity needs, business plans and opportunities and other factors in making and setting dividend policy.
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
As announced to the public in a Form 8-K filing on July 30, 2018, we approved a share repurchase program, which authorizes us to repurchase up to $150.0 million of our common stock. As of December 31, 2021, the maximum dollar value of shares available for repurchase under the plan is approximately $126.0 million. No shares were repurchased under the plan during 2021.
Performance Graph
The stock performance graph below compares the cumulative five-year total return provided to shareholders of Astec Industries, Inc.'s common stock relative to the cumulative total returns of the Russell 2000 index, our updated peer group ("2021 Peer Group") and our previous per group ("2020 Peer Group"). The companies included in the 2021 Peer Group and the 2020 Peer Group are representative of our definitive Proxy peer group, which we believe reflects industrial manufacturing companies of comparable size and complexity for the corresponding period and are reviewed annually and revised as necessary.
The ticker symbol of the companies included in our each of our peer groups are as follows:
2021 Peer Group: ALG, AIMC, B, GTLS, CIR, CMCO, CVGI, EPAC, NPO, FSS, GBX, HY, JBT, LNN, MTW, MWA, SHYF, SPXC, SXI and WNC
2020 Peer Group: ALG, AIMC, CIR, CMCO, CVGI, EPAC, NPO, FSS, GBX, LNN, MTW, NDSN, SHYF, SPXC, SXI, TTC and WNC
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The graph assumes that the value of an investment in our common stock, in the Russell 2000 index, in the 2021 Peer Group and in the 2020 Peer Group was $100 on December 31, 2016 and assumes reinvestment of all dividends as well as the relative performance of each through December 31, 2021.
December 31,
(in dollars) 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Astec Industries, Inc. 100.00 87.35 45.47 64.08 89.25 107.52
Russell 2000 100.00 114.63 101.99 127.98 153.49 176.18
2021 Peer Group 100.00 126.84 94.70 124.42 140.77 166.01
2020 Peer Group 100.00 127.07 97.01 134.43 158.87 186.45
ITEM 6. SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA
Not applicable.
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