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

Market Information.

The common shares of Group trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol, "RE". The quarterly high and low closing market prices of Group's common shares for the periods indicated were:

Number of Holders of Common Shares.

The number of record holders of common shares as of February 1, 2018 was 372. That number does not include the beneficial owners of shares held in "street" name or held through participants in depositories, such as The Depository Trust Company.

Dividend History and Restrictions.

In 1995, the Board of Directors of the Company established a policy of declaring regular quarterly cash dividends and has paid a regular quarterly dividend in each quarter since the fourth quarter of 1995. The Company declared and paid its quarterly cash dividend of $1.15 per share for the first three quarters of 2016. The Company declared and paid its quarterly cash dividend of $1.25 per share for the fourth quarter of 2016 and for the first three quarters of 2017. The Company declared and paid its quarterly cash dividend of $1.30 per share for the fourth quarter of 2017. On February 21, 2018, the Company's Board of Directors declared a dividend of $1.30 per share, payable on or before March 21, 2018 to shareholders of record on March 7, 2018.

The declaration and payment of future dividends, if any, by the Company will be at the discretion of the Board of Directors and will depend upon many factors, including the Company's earnings, financial condition, business needs and growth objectives, capital and surplus requirements of its operating subsidiaries, regulatory restrictions, rating agency considerations and other factors. As an insurance holding company, the Company is partially dependent on dividends and other permitted payments from its subsidiaries to pay cash dividends to its shareholders. The payment of dividends to Group by Holdings and to Holdings by Everest Re is subject to Delaware regulatory restrictions and the payment of dividends to Group by Bermuda Re is subject to Bermuda insurance regulatory restrictions. See "Regulatory Matters – Dividends" and ITEM 8, "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" - Note 14 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.

Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers

(1) On September 21, 2004, the Company's board of directors approved an amended share repurchase program authorizing the Company and/or its subsidiary Holdings to purchase up to an aggregate of 5,000,000 of the Company's common shares through open market transactions, privately negotiated transactions or both. On July 21, 2008; February 24, 2010; February 22, 2012; May 15, 2013; and November 19, 2014, the Company's executive committee of the Board of Directors has approved subsequent amendments to the share repurchase program authorizing the Company and/or its subsidiary Holdings, to purchase up to a current aggregate of 30,000,000 of the Company's shares (recognizing that the number of shares authorized for repurchase has been reduced by those shares that have already been purchased) in open market transactions, privately negotiated transactions or both.

Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities.

None.

Performance Graph.

The following Performance Graph compares cumulative total shareholder returns on the Common Shares (assuming reinvestment of dividends) from December 31, 2012 through December 31, 2017, with the cumulative total return of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index and the Standard & Poor's Insurance (Property and Casualty) Index.