For the second time this year, Northrop Grumman [NOC] on Tuesday said it will boost its stock dividend payment as part of its capital deployment strategy.
The company announced a 10 cent per share increase in its quarterly dividend payment to shareholders to $1.20 per share. The 9 percent increase, which is effective in June, follows a 10 cent hike to the quarterly shareholder payment that the company announced in January and made effective in March.
The off-cycle dividend increase announced in January stemmed from a tax reform bill that passed Congress in December that, in part, lowers corporate tax rates beginning this year.
“Our balanced capital deployment strategy continues to call for returning cash to our shareholders through dividends and share repurchases,” Wes Bush, Northrop Grumman’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement.