Note 6 – Common and Preferred Stock
Common Stock Authorization
In April 2019, the Company’s shareholders approved an amendment to its charter to increase the total number of shares of common stock that the Company has the authority to issue from 45,000,000 shares to 90,000,000 shares.
Shelf Registration
In June 2017, the Company filed an automatic shelf registration statement on Form S-3, registering an unspecified amount at an indeterminant aggregate initial offering price of common stock, preferred stock, depositary shares and warrants. The Company may periodically offer one or more of these securities in amounts, prices and on terms to be announced when and if these securities are offered. The specifics of any future offerings, along with the use of proceeds of any securities offered, will be described in detail in a prospectus supplement, or other offering materials, at the time of any offering.
ATM Program
In July 2019, the Company entered into a $400.0 million at-the-market equity program (“ATM”) program through which the Company may, from time to time, sell shares of common stock. In addition to selling shares of common stock, the Company may enter into forward sale agreements through its ATM program. During the three months ended September 30, 2019, the Company issued 444,228 shares under this program, at an average price of $74.30, realizing gross proceeds of $33.0 million. The Company had approximately $367.0 million remaining under the ATM program as of September 30, 2019.
During the year ended December 31, 2018, and the six months ended June 30, 2019, the Company issued 3,057,263 shares and 886,768 of common stock, respectively, under a previously authorized $250 million ATM program, at average prices of $59.28 and $66.83, respectively, realizing gross proceeds of approximately $181.2 million and $59.3 million, respectively. No future issuances will occur under this predecessor ATM program authorization.
Forward Sale Agreement
In September 2018, the Company closed a follow-on offering of 3,500,000 shares of common stock in connection with a forward sale agreement (the “September 2018 Forward”) and in April 2019 closed a subsequent follow-on offering of 3,162,500 shares of common stock in connection with a forward sale agreement (the “April 2019 Forward”). Concurrently with entering into the April 2019 Forward, the Company settled the entirety of the September 2018 Forward and received net proceeds of approximately $186.0 million.
As of September 30, 2019, the Company had not received proceeds from the sale of shares of its common stock by the forward purchasers in the April 2019 Forward. Selling common stock through forward sale agreements enables the Company to set the price of shares upon pricing the offering (subject to certain adjustments) while delaying the issuance of such shares and the receipt of the net proceeds by the Company. The April 2019 Forward is required to be settled no later than May 1, 2020.
Preferred Stock
During the nine months ended September 30, 2019, the Company redesignated and reclassified all 200,000 authorized but unissued shares of its Series A Junior Participating Preferred Stock as authorized but unissued and unclassified shares of preferred stock, par value $.0001 per share, of the Company without further designation. The number of preferred shares the Company has the authority to issue remains at 4,000,000, all of which are unclassified and undesignated.
Note 7 – Dividends and Distribution Payable
On September 4, 2019, the Company declared a dividend of $0.57 per share (and distributions per unit) for the quarter ended September 30, 2019. The holders of limited partnership interests in the Operating Partnership (“OP Units”) were