Item 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

Since April 23, 2008, our common stock has traded on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) under the symbol “AWK.” As of February 14, 2019, there were 180,751,697 shares of common stock outstanding held by approximately 2,619 record holders. Holders of our common stock are entitled to receive dividends when they are declared by our Board of Directors. See Note 9—Shareholders' Equity in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information regarding our dividends.

In February 2015, our Board of Directors authorized an anti-dilutive stock repurchase program to mitigate the dilutive effect of shares issued through our dividend reinvestment, employee stock purchase and executive compensation activities. The program allows us to purchase up to 10 million shares of our outstanding common stock over an unrestricted period of time in the open market or through privately negotiated transactions. The program is conducted in accordance with Rule 10b-18 of the Exchange Act, and, to facilitate these repurchases, we enter into Rule 10b5-1 stock repurchase plans with a third-party broker, which allows us to repurchase shares of our common stock at times when we otherwise might be prevented from doing so under insider trading laws or because of self-imposed trading blackout periods. Subject to applicable regulations, we may elect to amend or cancel the program or stock repurchase parameters at our discretion to manage dilution.

From April 1, 2015, the date repurchases under the anti-dilutive stock repurchase program commenced, through December 31, 2018, we repurchased an aggregate of 4,510,000 shares of our common stock under the program, including 560,000 shares repurchased during the first quarter of 2018. There were no repurchases of common stock in the last three quarters of 2018.