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

COMMON STOCK

We have 800,000,000 shares authorized at a $1 par value per share, of which 166,717,179 shares and 167,848,424 shares were issued and outstanding as of December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively.

PREFERRED STOCK

We have 10,000,000 shares authorized at a $1 par value per share, of which no shares were issued and outstanding as of December 31, 2020 and 2019.

MARKET INFORMATION

Our common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and trades under the symbol NOC.

HOLDERS

As of January 25, 2021, there were 20,639 common shareholders of record.

PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES BY THE ISSUER AND AFFILIATED PURCHASERS

We had no repurchases of common stock during the three months ended December 31, 2020. On January 25, 2021, the company’s board of directors authorized a new share repurchase program of up to an additional $3.0 billion in share repurchases of the company’s common stock (the “2021 Repurchase Program”), bringing the total outstanding authorization up to $5.8 billion. By its terms, repurchases under the 2021 Repurchase Program will commence upon completion of the prior share repurchase program authorized on December 4, 2018 and will expire when we have used all authorized funds for repurchases.

Share repurchases take place from time to time, subject to market conditions and management’s discretion, in the open market or in privately negotiated transactions. The company retires its common stock upon repurchase and, in the periods presented, has not made any purchases of common stock other than in connection with these publicly announced repurchase programs.

See Note 3 to the consolidated financial statements for further information on our share repurchase programs.

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NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORPORATION

STOCK PERFORMANCE GRAPH

Comparison of Cumulative Five Year Total Return

Among Northrop Grumman, the S&P 500 Index and the S&P Aerospace & Defense (A&D) Index

• Assumes $100 invested at the close of business on December 31, 2015, in Northrop Grumman Corporation common stock, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 Index and the S&P Aerospace & Defense Index.

• The cumulative total return assumes reinvestment of dividends.

• The S&P Aerospace & Defense Index is comprised of The Boeing Company, General Dynamics Corporation, Howmet Aerospace Inc., Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc., L3Harris Technologies, Inc., Lockheed Martin Corporation, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Raytheon Technologies Corporation, Teledyne Technologies Incorporated, Textron, Inc., and TransDigm Group Incorporated.

• The total return is weighted according to market capitalization of each company at the beginning of each year.

• This graph is not deemed to be “filed” with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or subject to the liabilities of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act), and should not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any of our prior or subsequent filings under the Securities Act of 1933 or the Exchange Act.

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NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORPORATION