Dividend Hike Chase Goes To Trucking (JBHT)

The trucking segment of the transportation sector is not all that well-known for its great dividend payments.  Don’t tell that to J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (NASDAQ: JBHT). This trucking outfit has been raising dividends and is doing so again.

The Hunt outfit has just announced that it is raising its quarterly dividend payment to shareholders.  The company’s board of directors “approved an increase in the quarterly cash dividend on its common stock to fourteen (14) cents per common share payable to stockholders of record on February 14, 2012. The dividend will be paid on February 24, 2012.”

The prior payout was $0.13 per share per quarter and the $51.45 price generates a dividend yield for the old dividend of a hair over 1%.

One-percent in dividend terms does not sound like much, but the raise is at least continued progress of a dividend hike theme.  There may be much more room for dividend hikes down the road as well.  The current 2012 fiscal earnings estimate from Thomson Reuters is $2.52 EPS and that is $2.92 EPS for 2013.  A new $0.56 annualized payout is not likely going to crimp the company’s capital spending plans by any means.