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
The Company’s common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange using “MUSA” as the trading symbol. There were 1,646 stockholders of record as of December 31, 2021.
The declaration and amount of any dividends to holders of our common stock will be at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend upon many factors, including our financial condition, earnings, cash flows, capital requirements of our business, covenants associated with our debt obligations, legal requirements, regulatory constraints, industry practice and other factors the board of directors deem relevant.
We are a holding company and have no direct operations. As a result, we are able to pay dividends on our common stock only from available cash on hand and distributions received from our subsidiaries. We declared and paid a total of $1.04 per share in dividends during 2021 and paid a $0.25 per share dividend in 2020 and expect to continue quarterly dividend payments for the near future.
The indenture governing the Senior Notes and the credit agreement governing our credit facilities and term loan contain restrictive covenants that limit, among other things, the ability of Murphy USA and the restricted subsidiaries to make certain restricted payments, which as defined under both agreements, include the declaration or payment of any dividends of any sort in respect of its capital stock and repurchase of shares of our common stock. See “Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Operating Results—Capital Resources and Liquidity—Debt” and Note 9 “Long-Term Debt” to the accompanying audited consolidated financial statements for the three years ended December 31, 2021 for additional information.
On October 28, 2020, the Board of Directors approved an up to $500 million share repurchase program. During 2021, purchases under the October 2020 authorization were 2,398,477 common shares for $355.0 million, for an average price of $148.00 per share. Purchases made in 2020 under the October 2020 authorization were 969,654 common shares for $125.0 million, for an average of $128.91 per share. At December 31, 2021, we had approximately $20.0 million remaining under the October authorization which we utilized in full in January 2022. In December 2021, the Company announced an additional authorization to repurchase shares of up to $1 billion in common shares by December 31, 2026, which became available to use once the October 2020 authorization completed.
Below is detail of the company's purchases of its own equity securities during the fourth quarter of 2021.
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Total Number Approximate
of Shares Dollar Value of
Purchased as Shares That May
Total Number Average Part of Publicly Yet Be Purchased
of Shares Price Paid Announced Plans Under the Plans
Purchased Per Share or Programs or Programs 1
October 1, 2021 to October 31, 2021 105,753 $ 168.78 105,753 $ 125,702,249
November 1, 2021 to November 30, 2021 428,238 174.98 428,238 50,771,043
December 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021 165,443 185.88 165,443 20,017,910
Three Months Ended December 31, 2021 699,434 $ 176.62 699,434 $ 20,017,910
1 Terms of the repurchase plan authorized by the Murphy USA Inc. Board of Directors and announced on October 28, 2020 include authorization for the Company to acquire up to $500 million of its common shares by December 31, 2023. A new authorization of $1 billion was announced on December 1, 2021, to begin upon the completion of the 2020 plan.
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Equity Compensation Plan Information
The table below contains information about securities authorized for issuance under equity compensation plans. The features of these plans are discussed further in Note 12 “Incentive Plans” to our audited consolidated financial statements.
Plan category Number of securities to be issued upon exercise of outstanding options, warrants and rights (1)
Weighted-average exercise price of outstanding options, warrants and rights Number of securities remaining available for future issuance under equity compensation plans (excluding securities reflected in column (a)) (2)
(a) (b) (c)
Equity compensation plans approved by security holders 700,029 $90.44 3,182,985
Equity compensation plans not approved by security holders — — —
Total 700,029 $90.44 3,182,985
(1) Amounts in this column include outstanding restricted stock units.
(2) Number of shares available for issuance includes 2,825,663 available shares under the 2013 Long-Term Incentive Plan as of December 31, 2021 plus 357,322 available shares under the 2013 Stock Plan for Non-Employee Directors as of December 31, 2021. Assumes each restricted stock unit is equivalent to one share and each performance unit is equal to two shares.
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SHAREHOLDER RETURN PERFORMANCE PRESENTATION
The following graph presents a comparison of cumulative total shareholder returns (including the reinvestment of dividends) as if a $100 investment was made on December 31, 2016, the Standard and Poor’s 500 Stock Index Fund (S&P 500 Index) and the S&P 400 Midcap Index. This performance information is “furnished” by the Company and is not considered as “filed” with this Annual Report on Form 10-K and is not incorporated into any document that incorporates this Annual Report on Form 10-K by reference.
Murphy USA Inc.
Comparison of Cumulative Shareholder Returns
Shareholder Return Performance Table
Murphy USA Inc. S&P 500 Index S&P 400 Mid cap Index
December 31, 2016 $ 100 $ 100 $ 100
December 31, 2017 $ 131 $ 119 $ 115
December 31, 2018 $ 125 $ 112 $ 100
December 31, 2019 $ 190 $ 144 $ 125
December 31, 2020 $ 213 $ 168 $ 140
December 31, 2021 $ 324 $ 213 $ 172
Item 6. RESERVED
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