RICHMOND, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Altria Group, Inc. (Altria) (NYSE:MO) today announced that its Board of Directors voted to increase Altria’s regular quarterly dividend by 14.3% to $0.80 per common share versus the previous rate of $0.70 per common share. The quarterly dividend is payable on October 10, 2018, to shareholders of record as of September 14, 2018. The ex-dividend date is September 13, 2018.
The new annualized dividend rate is $3.20 per common share, representing a yield of 5.2% based on Altria’s closing stock price of $61.00 on August 17, 2018.
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% of its adjusted diluted earnings per share. Altria has increased its dividend 53 times in the past 49 years.
