Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity
Item 5. Market for Registrant's Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity
Securities
Market Information and Dividends
Our common stock is listed for trading on the NYSE under the symbol "HLT." As of December 31, 2021, there were seven holders of record of our common stock, which does not include a substantially greater number of beneficial holders whose shares are held of record by banks, brokers and other financial institutions.
Prior to 2020, we historically paid cash dividends. However, we suspended the declaration and payment of dividends as part of certain proactive measures we took to secure our liquidity position in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We expect to declare and pay dividends in the future subject to the sole discretion of our board of directors, whose decision will depend on, among other things, our results of operations, cash requirements, financial condition, contractual restrictions and other factors that our board of directors may deem relevant. Because we are a holding company and have no direct operations, we will only be able to pay dividends from funds we receive from our subsidiaries.
Performance Graph
The following graph compares Hilton's cumulative total stockholder return since December 31, 2016 with the S&P 500 Index ("S&P 500") and the S&P Hotels, Resorts & Cruise Lines Index ("S&P Hotel"). The graph assumes that the value of the investment in our common stock and each index was $100 on December 31, 2016 and that all dividends and other distributions, including the effect of the spin-offs, were reinvested. The comparisons in the graph below are based on historical data and are not indicative of, or intended to forecast, future performance of our common stock.
12/31/2016 12/31/2017 12/31/2018 12/31/2019 12/31/2020 12/31/2021
Hilton $ 100.00 $ 144.37 $ 130.80 $ 203.30 $ 204.38 $ 286.54
S&P 500 100.00 119.42 111.97 144.31 167.77 212.89
S&P Hotel 100.00 146.42 118.05 159.00 117.25 140.52
Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities
None.
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Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Our stock repurchase program was initially publicly announced in February 2017 and subsequently increased in November 2017, February 2019 and March 2020. As of December 31, 2021, approximately $2.2 billion remained available for share repurchases under the program. Under the program, we are authorized to repurchase shares through open market purchases, privately-negotiated transactions or otherwise in accordance with applicable federal securities laws, including through Rule 10b5-1 trading plans and under Rule 10b-18 of the Exchange Act. The repurchase program does not have an expiration date and may be suspended or discontinued at any time.
We formally suspended share repurchases in March 2020, given the economic environment and our efforts to preserve cash, and no share repurchases have been made since then. The stock repurchase program remains authorized by the board of directors, and we expect to resume share repurchases in the future, depending on market conditions, our capital needs and other factors.
Item 6. [Reserved]
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