Hello everyone. My name is Greg Smith, Vice President and Corporate Secretary for First American Financial Corporation, and I will act as secretary of this meeting. Please note that this meeting is being recorded and the recording will be made available on our website. However, no one attending via the webcast is permitted to record or capture all or any portion of the meeting. The meeting today will be presided over by our Chairman of the Board, Dennis Gilmore. Also attending today is Fred Kelso, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, our independent auditors. Fred is available to respond to appropriate questions during the general question and answer period. Daniel Wassler, who is with Equiniti Shareowner Services, our stock transfer agent, is the Inspector of Elections for this meeting and is also attending today.
After dealing with a few procedural matters in introducing the directors in attendance, we will take up the items to be acted upon. The polls are currently open and will remain open for approximately the next five minutes. If you have not already voted or if you wish to change your vote, you may do so by following the instructions on the virtual annual meeting website. If you previously voted by proxy through the mail, telephone, or internet, you do not need to vote today unless you wish to change your vote. The agenda for the meeting and the rules of conduct for the meeting are displayed on the virtual annual meeting website. To conduct an orderly meeting, we ask that participants abide by these rules. As stated in these rules, remarks made during the meeting should be limited to matters on the agenda.
As is our custom, we will answer general questions at the end of the meeting. Please submit any questions in the space provided on the virtual annual meeting website. Questions must abide by the rules of conduct. Thank you for your cooperation. I will now turn the meeting over to our Chairman, Dennis Gilmore.
Thank you. Good morning and welcome to First American Financial's annual shareholder meeting. I'm Dennis Gilmore, Chairman of the Board, and we appreciate your attendance and your support of First American. I now call this meeting to order. I'm pleased that all our board members are in attendance today, including Ken DeGiorgio, Jim Doti, Meg McCarthy, Mike McKee, Tom McKernan, and Marsha Spence. Additionally, the three board members up for election for a new term are in attendance, including Reggie Gilyard, Senior Advisor for the Boston Consulting Group. Reggie's been our director since 2017, and he brings an in-depth understanding and complexity of large dynamic organizations and their customers. Second, Parker Kennedy's up for election. He's our Lead Director and Chairman Emeritus. He's been with the company for over 40 years and our director since 2010.
Parker has an unrivaled understanding of our industry, of First American's history and culture. Mark Oman, a retired senior executive of Wells Fargo, been a director since 2013. Mark provides an in-depth understanding of how to run complex home and consumer finance operations. Further detailed biographies of all our board members can be found in our proxy. Thanks to all our board members for your continued service and wise counsel. Our stock transfer agent reported that we have a quorum present for the purposes of transacting business. I now ask our secretary to run through the agenda of this meeting.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There are four items on the agenda for this meeting. The first is the election of Class Three directors. The board of directors has nominated Reginald H. Gilyard, Parker S. Kennedy, and Mark C. Oman to serve as Class Three directors for a three-year term expiring on the date of the 2025 annual meeting of stockholders. The board of directors recommends that you vote for each of these Class Three director nominees. The second item of business is the approval on an advisory basis of the compensation of the company's named executive officers as disclosed in the proxy materials for this meeting. The board of directors recommends that you vote for this resolution. The third item of business is the approval of the amendment and restatement of our 2010 Employee Stock Purchase Plan.
The board of directors recommends that you vote for this proposal. The fourth item of business is the ratification of PricewaterhouseCoopers as the company's independent accounting firm for 2022. The board of directors recommends that you vote for this proposal. We have not received any questions or comments relating to the items on the agenda, and we'll defer any other questions until after the meeting. The polls have been open since the beginning of the meeting and are about to close. If you have not already voted or if you wish to change your vote, you may do so by following the instructions on the virtual annual meeting website. If you previously voted by proxy through the mail, telephone or internet, you do not need to vote today unless you wish to change your vote.
We will pause for a moment to allow for the submission of any final votes. Now that everyone has had the opportunity to vote, the polls are now closed. The inspector of elections has provided the preliminary results of the voting. The preliminary vote report shows that the three nominees presented have been elected as Class three directors. The executives' compensation is approved. The amendment and restatement of the 2010 Employee Stock Purchase Plan is approved. PricewaterhouseCoopers has been ratified as the company's independent accounting firm for 2022. Please submit now any additional questions in the space provided on the virtual annual meeting website. At the conclusion of remarks our chairman is about to make, we will stop accepting questions and we'll answer those questions that conform to the rules of conduct for the meeting.
Since we've finished our official business for the meeting, the meeting is now adjourned. Mr. Chairman, I turn at this time back to you.
Thank you, Greg, and thank you to our investors for your continued support of our company. It's my privilege to serve as First American's Chairman of the board of directors. 2021 was a record year for First American. Our annual total shareholder returns were 56% exceeding the S&P 500. We increased our common stock dividend last year by 11%. Since the beginning of 2021 through April of 2022, we've repurchased nearly 5 million shares. 2022 is off to a strong start as well, with first quarter pre-tax margin in our title segment coming in at 11%. In our outlook for the remainder of 2022, we expect transaction volumes in our purchase market to be down from last year.
However, we expect strong housing demand, supported by a strong economy and strong labor markets to continue to drive robust home price appreciation, and together with acquisitions, modest growth in our purchase revenue this year. We are also confident our commercial business will continue to operate at an elevated level into the second half of the year. I continue to be excited about First American's future. Under our CEO, Ken DeGiorgio's oversight, First American will continue to lead the digital transformation of the title insurance and settlement industry. The company will continue to emphasize and capitalize on the many opportunities it has to grow its business while maintaining its exceptional award-winning culture. This culture led to having First American named to Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For seven years in a row.
As I've said many times, when we put our people first, they'll take care of our customers, and when they do, and we run the business efficiently, we will deliver superior results to our shareholders. I conclude by thanking you again for your continued support of the company.
Thank you for your remarks, Mr. Chairman. We'll now stop accepting questions. Since we've received no questions, we want to thank you for your participation in our meeting today. We will now conclude the call.