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 “AZO.” On October 21, 2019, there were 2,112 stockholders of record, which does not include the number of beneficial owners whose shares were represented by security position listings.

We currently do not pay a dividend on our common stock. Our ability to pay dividends is subject to limitations imposed by Nevada law. Any future payment of dividends would be dependent upon our financial condition, capital requirements, earnings and cash flow.

During 1998, the Company announced a program permitting the Company to repurchase a portion of its outstanding shares not to exceed a dollar maximum established by the Company’s Board of Directors. The program was most recently amended on October 7, 2019, to increase the repurchase authorization by $1.250 billion, bringing total value of authorized share repurchases to $23.2 billion.

Shares of common stock repurchased by the Company during the quarter ended August 31, 2019, were as follows:

The Company also repurchased, at market value, an additional 17,201, 11,816 and 12,455 shares in fiscal years 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively, from employees electing to sell their stock under the Company’s Sixth Amended and Restated Employee Stock Purchase Plan (the “Employee Plan”), qualified under Section 423 of the Internal Revenue Code, under which all eligible employees may purchase AutoZone’s common stock at 85% of the lower of the market price of the common stock on the first day or last day of each calendar quarter through payroll deductions. Maximum permitted annual purchases are $15,000 per employee or 10 percent of compensation, whichever is less. Under the Employee Plan, 11,011, 14,523 and 14,205 shares were sold to employees in fiscal 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively. At August 31, 2019, 152,766 shares of common stock were reserved for future issuance under the Employee Plan.

Once executives have reached the maximum purchases under the Employee Plan, the Sixth Amended and Restated Executive Stock Purchase Plan (the “Executive Plan”) permits all eligible executives to purchase AutoZone’s common stock up to 25 percent of his or her annual salary and bonus. Purchases by executives under the Executive Plan were 1,483, 1,840 and 1,865 shares in fiscal 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively. At August 31, 2019, 236,565 shares of common stock were reserved for future issuance under the Executive Plan.

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Stock Performance Graph

The graph below presents changes in the value of AutoZone’s stock as compared to Standard & Poor’s 500 Composite Index (“S&P 500”) and to Standard & Poor’s Retail Index (“S&P Retail Index”) for the five-year period beginning August 30, 2014 and ending August 31, 2019.

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