Still Smoking, Altria’s Big Dividend Hike Lesson (MO, RAI, VGR)
Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO) has made good on a dividend hike we have been expecting. The domestic tobacco giant has now increased its regular dividend by almost 8% to $0.41 per common share per quarter. The prior dividend was…
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The new annualized dividend rate is $1.64 per common share and the $26.01 share price and that generates a new dividend yield of 6.3%. That is even above our mid-point of the latest Great Dividend Portfolio for Uncertain Times recently published.
Altria targets roughly an 80% payout ratio of its income for dividends. It is not exactly like it is looking for huge acquisitions ahead.
The best statistic is this… Altria has increased its dividend 45 times in the last 42 years.
Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE: RAI) is probably another two quarters out before another dividend hike is announced, and its current yield is about 5.85%. Vector Group Ltd. (NYSE: VGR) could have a hike at any time, but the $0.40 per quarter payout with an $18.27 price generates a current dividend of 8.7%.
It is amazing to be in a business that kills the customers and earnings can keep rising and rising.
JON C. OGG
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Jon Ogg has been a financial news analyst since 1997. Mr. Ogg set up one of the first audio squawk box services for traders called TTN, which he sold in 2003. He has previously worked as a licensed broker to some of the top U.S. and E.U. financial institutions, managed capital, and has raised private capital at the seed and venture stage. He has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as New York and Chicago, and he now lives in Houston, Texas. Jon received a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance at University of Houston in 1992. www.247wallst.com.
