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 common stock ($.20 par value per share) trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol TROW. The high and low trade price information and dividends per share during the past two years were:



	1st quarter		2nd quarter		3rd quarter		4th quarter
2016 – High price	$	74.72	$	79.00	$	75.12	$	78.95
Low price	$	63.57	$	67.34	$	64.76	$	62.97
Cash dividends declared	$	.54	$	.54	$	.54	$	.54

2017 – High price	$	77.08	$	75.92	$	91.19	$	106.10
Low price	$	65.33	$	67.60	$	74.16	$	89.38
Cash dividends declared	$	.57	$	.57	$	.57	$	.57

Our common stockholders have approved all of our equity-based compensation plans. These plans provide for the following issuances of shares of our common stock at December 31, 2017:



	Employee and non-employee director plans	Employee stock purchase plan	Total
Exercise of outstanding options	15,221,123	—	15,221,123
Settlement of outstanding restricted stock units	5,635,197	—	5,635,197
Future issuances	18,445,397	2,693,679	21,139,076
Total	39,301,717	2,693,679	41,995,396

The outstanding options included in the table above have a weighted-average exercise price of $66.98. Under the terms of the 2012 Long-Term Incentive Plan, approved by stockholders in April 2012, the number of shares provided and available for future issuance will increase as we repurchase common stock in the future with the proceeds from stock option exercises. No shares have been issued under our Employee Stock Purchase Plan since its inception; all shares have been purchased in the open market.

The following table presents repurchase activity during the fourth quarter of 2017.



Month	Total number of shares purchased	Average price paid per share		Total number of shares purchased as part of publicly announced program	Maximum number of shares that may yet be purchased under the program
October	297,191	$	94.10	—	15,198,779
November	179,440	$	97.76	15,000	15,183,779
December	345,219	$	102.78	—	15,183,779
Total	821,850	$	98.54	15,000

Shares repurchased by us in a quarter may include repurchases conducted pursuant to publicly announced Board authorization, outstanding shares surrendered to the company to pay the exercise price in connection with swap exercises of employee stock options, and shares withheld to cover the minimum tax withholding obligation associated with the vesting of restricted stock awards. Of the total number of shares purchased during the fourth quarter of 2017, 621,213 were related to shares surrendered in connection with employee stock option exercises and 185,637 were related to shares withheld to cover tax withholdings associated with the vesting of restricted stock awards.

The remaining 15,000 shares of our common stock purchased during the fourth quarter of 2017 were repurchased pursuant to the Board of Directors’ December 10, 2015, publicly announced authorization. The maximum number of shares that may yet be purchased as of December 31, 2017, under the Board of Directors’ December 10, 2015, and December 6, 2016, publicly announced authorizations is 15,183,779.

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We have 7,247 stockholders of record and approximately 215,000 beneficial stockholder accounts held by brokers, banks, and other intermediaries holding our common stock. Common stock owned outright by our associates, combined with outstanding vested stock options and unvested restricted stock awards, total 14% of our outstanding shares and outstanding vested stock options at December 31, 2017.

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