Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Market and Stockholder Information

Our common stock trades on The NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “BIIB.” The following table shows the high and low sales price for our common stock as reported by The NASDAQ Global Select Market for each quarter in the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014:

As of January 29, 2016, there were approximately 742 stockholders of record of our common stock.

Dividends

We have not paid cash dividends since our inception. While we historically have not paid cash dividends and do not have a current intention to pay cash dividends, we continually review our capital allocation strategies, including, among other things, payment of cash dividends, stock repurchases, or acquisitions.

Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

In May 2015, our Board of Directors authorized a program to repurchase up to $5.0 billion of our common stock (2015 Share Repurchase Program).

The following table summarizes our common stock repurchase activity under our 2015 Share Repurchase Program during the fourth quarter of 2015:

As of December 31, 2015, the 2015 Share Repurchase Program was completed and we repurchased and retired approximately 16.8 million shares of common stock at a cost of $5.0 billion during the year ended December 31, 2015.

In February 2011, our Board of Directors authorized a program to repurchase up to 20.0 million shares of our common stock (2011 Share Repurchase Program), which has been used principally to offset common stock issuances under our share-based compensation plans. The 2011 Share Repurchase Program does not have an expiration date. We did not repurchase any shares of common stock under our 2011 Share Repurchase Program during the year ended December 31, 2015 and have approximately 1.3 million shares remaining available for repurchase under this authorization.

Stock Performance Graph

The graph below compares the five-year cumulative total stockholder return on our common stock, the S&P 500 Index, the Nasdaq Pharmaceutical Index and the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index assuming the investment of $100.00 on December 31, 2010 with dividends being reinvested. The stock price performance in the graph below is not necessarily indicative of future price performance.