Wal-Mart Raises Dividend
Wal-Mart
(WMT) - Get Report
raised its dividend by 15.4%, sweetening the stock for investors who were already cheered by the company's stronger-than-expected sales report for February.
The world's largest retailer boosted its quarterly dividend to 15 cents from 13 cents, with the next payable April 4 to stockholders of record March 18.
Wal-Mart said it will return more than $2.5 billion to its shareholders in the form of dividends this fiscal year. It has increased its dividend every year since it first declared one in March 1974.
Its stock was recently up 98 cents, or 1.9%, to $52.93, giving it an annual dividend yield of about 1.1%.
Earlier Thursday, Wal-Mart said same-store sales for February surged 4.1% from a year ago.
The discount giant reported overall sales of $22.37 billion for the month, up 10.9% from a year ago. By segment, Wal-Mart Stores' overall sales rose 11.1% from a year ago to $15.13 billion, Sam's Club's overall sales rose 5.4% to $2.82 billion, and international sales rose 14.4% to $4.41 billion.
The company had previously previewed a same-store sales increase of 4% for the month. "For the March five-week period, we forecast comparative sales for the U.S. to be similar to or better than February," Wal-Mart said.