Altria Dividend Increased by 7.3 Percent

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 08/29/2012

The Altria Group's board of directors voted on Friday to increase Altria's regular quarterly dividend by 7.3 per cent to $0.44 per common share. The quarterly dividend is payable on October 10 to shareholders of record as of September 14. The ex-dividend date is September 12. The new annualized dividend rate is $1.76 per common share, representing a yield of 5.3 per cent based on Altria's closing stock price of $33.45 on August 23. "Today's dividend increase reflects Altria's intention to return a large amount of cash to shareholders in the form of dividends and is consistent with Altria's dividend payout ratio target of approximately 80 per cent of its adjusted diluted earnings per share," the company said in a note posted on its website. "Altria has increased its dividend 46 times in the last 43 years." Enditem