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
Our common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol VPG. The Board of Directors may only declare dividends or other distributions with respect to the common stock or the Class B convertible common stock if it grants such dividends or distributions in the same amount, per share, with respect to the other class of stock. Stock dividends or distributions, on any class of stock, are payable only in shares of stock of that class. Shares of either common stock or Class B convertible common stock cannot be split, divided, or combined unless the other is also split, divided, or combined equally. Holders of record of our common stock totaled approximately 676 at February 29, 2024.
We have two classes of common stock: common stock and Class B convertible common stock. The holders of common stock are entitled to one vote for each share held, while the holders of Class B convertible common stock are entitled to 10 votes for each share held. At February 29, 2024, we had outstanding 1,022,887 shares of Class B convertible common stock, par value $0.10 per share. Currently, the holders of VPG’s Class B convertible common stock hold approximately 45.3% of the voting power of our Company. Mrs. Ruta Zandman, the widow of the late founder of our technology, Dr. Felix Zandman, controls the voting of, solely or on a shared basis with Marc Zandman (Dr. Felix Zandman's son and a member of our Board of Directors) and Ziv Shoshani (Mrs. Ruta Zandman's nephew, our Chief Executive Officer and a member of our Board of Directors), approximately 76.9% of our Class B convertible common stock, representing 34.9% of the total voting power of our capital stock as of December 31, 2023.
The following table provides information about repurchases of the Company's common stock during the three-month period ended December 31, 2023
Total Number of Shares Purchased Average Price Paid Per Share Total Number of Shares Purchased as Part of Publicly Announced Plans or Programs Maximum Number of Shares that May Yet Be Purchased Under the Plans (a)
October 1, 2023 to November 1, 2023 37,562 $ 31.93 37,562 442,019
November 2, 2023 to December 2, 2023 68,073 $ 29.91 68,073 373,946
December 3, 2023 to December 31, 2023 47,572 $ 31.19 47,572 326,374
Total 153,207 153,207 326,374
(a) On August 8, 2022, the Board of Directors (the “Board”) of the Company authorized the repurchase of up to 600,000 shares of the Company’s outstanding common stock (the “Stock Repurchase Plan”). The Stock Repurchase Plan was originally set to expire on August 11, 2023, and the Board authorized purchases thereunder to be made through an issuer repurchase plan adopted under Rule 10b5-1 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), open market purchases or private transactions, in accordance with the applicable federal securities laws, including Rule 10b-18 under the Exchange Act. On August 8, 2023, the Company announced that its Board of Directors extended the term of the previously approved stock repurchase plan to August 9, 2024. From August 8, 2022 to December 31, 2023, the Company had repurchased an aggregate of 273,626 shares under the Stock Repurchase Plan.
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Stock Performance Graph
The graph and table below compare the cumulative total stockholder return on the Company’s common stock over a five year period, with the returns on the Russell 2000 Stock Index, and a peer group of companies selected by our management. The peer group is made up of eight publicly held manufacturers of sensors, sensor-based equipment, and sensor-based systems. Management believes that the product offerings of the peer group companies are more similar to our product offerings than those of the companies contained in any published industry index. The return of each new peer issuer has been weighted according to the respective issuer’s stock market capitalization. The graph and table assume that $100 had been invested at December 31, 2018, and that all dividends were reinvested. The graph and table are not necessarily indicative of future investment performance.
12/31/18 12/31/19 12/31/20 12/31/21 12/31/22 12/31/23
Vishay Precision Group, Inc. Cumulative $ 100.00 112.47 104.13 122.79 127.84 112.67
Russell 2000 Index Cumulative $ 100.00 125.52 150.57 172.89 137.55 160.84
Peer Group Cumulative $ 100.00 134.43 143.41 160.90 128.11 158.93
*The management selected peer group includes: CTS Corp., Luna Innovations Inc., inTEST Corporation, Kyowa, Spectris plc, TT Electronics plc, FARO Technologies Inc., ESCO Technologies Inc.
Item 6. [ Reserved]
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