republic services , inc . notes to consolidated financial statements 2014 ( continued ) employee stock purchase plan republic employees are eligible to participate in an employee stock purchase plan . the plan allows participants to purchase our common stock for 95% ( 95 % ) of its quoted market price on the last day of each calendar quarter . for the years ended december 31 , 2016 , 2015 and 2014 , issuances under this plan totaled 130085 shares , 141055 shares and 139941 shares , respectively . as of december 31 , 2016 , shares reserved for issuance to employees under this plan totaled 0.5 million and republic held employee contributions of approximately $ 1.5 million for the purchase of common stock . 12 . stock repurchases and dividends stock repurchases stock repurchase activity during the years ended december 31 , 2016 and 2015 follows ( in millions except per share amounts ) : .

Table: 2016 2015 number of shares repurchased 8.4 9.8 amount paid $ 403.8 $ 404.7 weighted average cost per share $ 48.56 $ 41.39

as of december 31 , 2016 , there were no repurchased shares pending settlement . in october 2015 , our board of directors added $ 900.0 million to the existing share repurchase authorization , which now extends through december 31 , 2017 . share repurchases under the program may be made through open market purchases or privately negotiated transactions in accordance with applicable federal securities laws . while the board of directors has approved the program , the timing of any purchases , the prices and the number of shares of common stock to be purchased will be determined by our management , at its discretion , and will depend upon market conditions and other factors . the share repurchase program may be extended , suspended or discontinued at any time . as of december 31 , 2016 , the october 2015 repurchase program had remaining authorized purchase capacity of $ 451.7 million . in december 2015 , our board of directors changed the status of 71272964 treasury shares to authorized and unissued . in doing so , the number of our issued shares was reduced by the stated amount . our accounting policy is to deduct the par value from common stock and to reflect the excess of cost over par value as a deduction from additional paid-in capital . the change in unissued shares resulted in a reduction of $ 2295.3 million in treasury stock , $ 0.6 million in common stock , and $ 2294.7 million in additional paid-in capital . there was no effect on our total stockholders 2019 equity position as a result of the change . dividends in october 2016 , our board of directors approved a quarterly dividend of $ 0.32 per share . cash dividends declared were $ 423.8 million , $ 404.3 million and $ 383.6 million for the years ended december 31 , 2016 , 2015 and 2014 , respectively . as of december 31 , 2016 , we recorded a quarterly dividend payable of $ 108.6 million to shareholders of record at the close of business on january 3 , 2017. .

Question: as of december 31 , 2016 what was the percent of the outstanding authorized purchase capacity of the the october 2015 plan
Answer: 50.2%
Calculation: divide(451.7, 900.0)
Explanation: the repurchase plan of october 2015 had a remaining balance of 50.2% as of december 2016