01-12-2016, 09:32 PM
(01-12-2016, 06:56 PM)rapidacid Wrote: Ford Motor Declares Supplemental Cash Dividend and First Quarter Dividend
Ford Motor (NYSE:F) declares $0.15/share quarterly dividend, in line with previous.
Forward yield 4.67%
Payable March 1; for shareholders of record Jan. 29; ex-div Jan. 27.
Additionally, the board declared a supplemental dividend of $0.25/share payable along with regular dividend.
Does this strike anyone else as odd?
Since re-instituting the dividend in 2012, F has raised the dividend each year in Q1. If they had skipped this supplemental dividend, the same money could have funded a quarterly raise to 18 cents per share for the next two years. That would have represented a 20 percent raise, and cost the company a lot less in the short term.
Why would they forego a small annual raise in favor of a large one-time payout? I suppose the answer might be that they have low confidence in future earnings, and don't want to lock themselves into a higher dividend that they'll need to reduce or cut later?
I know I shouldn't expect dividend aristocrat behavior from the likes of Ford, but even so, this is head-scratcher to me.