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

As of December 31, 2020, the number of shareholders of record was 33,418. Cigna’s common stock is listed with, and trades on, the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “CI”.

On January 6, 2021 Cigna initiated a quarterly cash dividend and declared the first quarterly cash dividend of $1.00 per share of Cigna common stock to be paid on March 25, 2021 to shareholders of record as of March 10, 2021. Cigna currently intends to pay regular quarterly dividends, with future declarations subject to approval by its Board of Directors and the Board's determination that the declaration of dividends remains in the best interests of Cigna and its shareholders. The decision of whether to pay future dividends and the amount of any such dividends will be based on the Company's financial position, results of operations, cash flows, capital requirements, the requirements of applicable law and any other factors the Board of Directors may deem relevant.

For the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019 Cigna paid a yearly cash dividend of $0.04 per share of Cigna common stock.

Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

The following table provides information about Cigna’s share repurchase activity for the quarter ended December 31, 2020:

*(1)*Includes shares tendered by employees under the Company’s equity compensation plans as follows: 1) payment of taxes on vesting of restricted stock (grants and units) and strategic performance shares and 2) payment of the exercise price and taxes for certain stock options exercised. Employees tendered 1,371 shares in October, 1,189 shares in November and 18,748 shares in December 2020.

*(2)*Additionally, the Company maintains a share repurchase program authorized by the Board of Directors. Under this program, the Company may repurchase shares from time to time, depending on market conditions and alternate uses of capital. The timing and actual number of shares repurchased will depend on a variety of factors, including price, general business and market conditions and alternate uses of capital. The share repurchase program may be effected through Rule 10b5-1 plans, open market purchases, each in compliance with Rule 10b-18 under the Exchange Act, or privately negotiated transactions. The program may be suspended or discontinued at any time and does not have an expiration date. In December 2020, the Board increased repurchase authority by an additional $2 billion. From January 1, 2021 through February 24, 2021, the Company repurchased 8.1 million shares for approximately $1.7 billion, leaving repurchase authority at $2.1 billion as of February 24, 2021.

*(3)*Approximate dollar value of shares is as of the last date of the applicable month.

Stock Price Performance Graph

The graph below compares the cumulative total shareholder return on our common stock for the five years ended December 31, 2020 with the cumulative total return of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Health Care Providers & Services Index and the Standard & Poor’s Managed Health Care, Life & Health Insurance Indexes. The stock performance shown in the graph is not intended to forecast or be indicative of future performance.

With consideration to Cigna's evolved strategy and recent divestiture of the Group Disability and Life business, for future filings we will select to present the S&P 500 Health Care Index as our peer group for this disclosure. Peer indices disclosed in previous filings are included herein for comparison.