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 Holders
NRG's common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "NRG." NRG's authorized capital stock consists of 500,000,000 shares of common stock and 10,000,000 shares of preferred stock. A total of 25,000,000 shares of the Company's common stock are authorized for issuance under the NRG LTIP. For more information about the NRG LTIP and the NRG GenOn LTIP, refer to Item 12 — S ecurity Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters and Item 15 — Note 21, Stock-Based Compensation , to the Consolidated Financial Statements .
As of January 31, 2022, there were 16,501 common stockholders of record.
NRG increased the annual dividend to $1.30 from $1.20 per share beginning in the first quarter of 2021 and further increased the annual dividend by 8% to $1.40 per share beginning in the first quarter of 2022 . NRG expects to target an annual dividend growth rate of 7-9% per share in subsequent years.
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
The table below sets forth the information with respect to purchases made by or on behalf of NRG or any "affiliated purchaser" (as defined in Rule 10b-18(a)(3) under the Exchange Act) of NRG's common stock during the quarter ended December 31, 2021.
For the three months ended December 31, 2021 Total Number of Shares Purchased Average Price Paid per Share (b)
Total Number of Shares Purchased as Part of Publicly Announced Plans or Programs Approximate Dollar Value of Shares that May Yet Be Purchased Under the Plans or Programs (a)(c)
Month #1
(October 1, 2021 to October 31, 2021 — $ — — $ —
Month #2
(November 1, 2021 to November 30, 2021, — $ — — $ —
Month #3
(December 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021) 1,084,752 $ 40.85 1,084,752 $ 955,665,275
Total at December 31, 2021 1,084,752 $ 40.85 1,084,752
(a) On December 6, 2021 the Company announced that the Board of Directors has authorized $1 billion for share repurchases, as part of NRG’s Capital Allocation Program. The program began in December 2021 and will continue throughout 2022
(b) The average price paid per share excludes commissions of $0.02 per share paid in connection with the open market share repurchases
(c) Includes commissions of $0.02 per share paid in connection with the open market share repurchases
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Stock Performance Graph
The performance graph below compares the cumulative total stockholder return on NRG's common stock for the period December 31, 2016 through December 31, 2021 with the cumulative total return of the Standard & Poor's 500 Composite Stock Price Index, or S&P 500, and the Philadelphia Utility Sector Index, or UTY.
The performance graph shown below is being furnished and compares each period assuming that $100 was invested on December 31, 2016, in each of the common stock of NRG, the stocks included in the S&P 500 and the stocks included in the UTY, and that all dividends were reinvested.
Comparison of Cumulative Total Return
12/31/2016 12/31/2017 12/31/2018 12/31/2019 12/31/2020 12/31/2021
NRG Energy, Inc. $ 100.00 $ 233.70 $ 326.22 $ 328.47 $ 321.43 $ 381.07
S&P 500 100.00 121.83 116.49 153.17 181.35 233.41
UTY 100.00 112.82 116.79 148.11 152.14 179.90
Item 6 — Reserved
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