Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
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Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Our Class A common stock trades on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol “CTSH.” As of December 31, 2025, the number of holders of record of our Class A common stock was 88 and the approximate number of beneficial holders of our Class A common stock was 697,100.
Cash Dividends
During 2025, we paid quarterly cash dividends of $0.31 per share, or $1.24 per share in total for the year. In February 2026, our Board of Directors approved a cash dividend of $0.33 per share with a record date of February 18, 2026 and a payment date of February 26, 2026. We intend to continue to pay quarterly cash dividends in accordance with our capital allocation framework. Future dividend payments depend on a variety of factors, including cash flow generated from operations, cash and investment balances, net income, overall liquidity position, potential alternative uses of cash, such as acquisitions, and anticipated future economic conditions and financial results.
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Our stock repurchase program was initially adopted in 2017 and has been amended from time to time, including most recently in March 2025, to authorize the repurchase of up to $13.5 billion, excluding fees and expenses, of our Class A common stock through open market purchases, including under a 10b5-1 Plan in accordance with applicable federal securities laws. The repurchase program does not have an expiration date and had a remaining balance of $1,918 million as of December 31, 2025. The timing of repurchases and the exact number of shares to be purchased are determined by management, in its discretion, or pursuant to a 10b5-1 Plan, and depend upon market conditions and other factors.
During the three months ended December 31, 2025, we repurchased $325 million of our Class A common stock under our stock repurchase program as follows:
| Month | Total Number of Shares Purchased | Average Price Paid per Share | Total Number of Shares Purchased as Part of Publicly Announced Plans or Programs | Approximate Dollar Value of Shares that May Yet Be Purchased under the Plans or Programs (in millions) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| October 1, 2025 - October 31, 2025 | 739,820 | $ | 67.58 | 739,820 | $ | 2,193 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| November 1, 2025 - November 30, 2025 | 2,079,104 | 72.81 | 2,079,104 | 2,042 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| December 1, 2025 - December 31, 2025 | 1,491,234 | 82.90 | 1,491,234 | 1,918 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Total | 4,310,158 | $ | 75.40 | 4,310,158 |
We regularly purchase shares in connection with our stock-based compensation plans as shares of our Class A common stock are tendered by employees for payment of applicable statutory tax withholdings. For the three months ended December 31, 2025, we purchased 0.2 million shares at an aggregate cost of $13 million in connection with employee tax withholding obligations.
Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities
None.
| Cognizant | 26 | December 31, 2025 Form 10-K |
Performance Graph
The following graph compares the cumulative total stockholder return on our Class A common stock with the cumulative total return on the S&P 500 Index and the S&P 500 Information Technology Index for the period beginning December 31, 2020 and ending on the last day of our last completed fiscal year. The stock performance shown on the graph below is not indicative of future price performance.
COMPARISON OF CUMULATIVE TOTAL RETURN**(1)(2)**
Among Cognizant, the S&P 500 Index and the S&P 500 Information Technology Index

| Company / Index | Base Period 12/31/20 | 12/31/21 | 12/31/22 | 12/31/23 | 12/31/24 | 12/31/25 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp | $ | 100 | $ | 109.64 | $ | 71.77 | $ | 96.44 | $ | 99.77 | $ | 109.43 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| S&P 500 Index | 100 | 128.71 | 105.40 | 133.10 | 166.40 | 196.16 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| S&P 500 Information Technology Index | 100 | 134.53 | 96.60 | 152.48 | 208.30 | 258.38 |
(1)Graph assumes $100 invested on December 31, 2020 in our Class A common stock, the S&P 500 Index and the S&P 500 Information Technology Index.
(2)Cumulative total return assumes reinvestment of dividends.
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