Confident in its business prospects, Huntington Ingalls Industries [HII] on Thursday said its board of directors has approved a 100 percent increase in the quarterly dividend while also doubling the current stock repurchase program.
The new quarterly dividend, which will be payable on Dec. 12, is 40 cents per share while the stock repurchase authority is now $600 million, HII said. The stock buyback program has also been extended by two years until Oct. 31, 2019.
“Increasing the quarterly cash dividend and the share repurchase program affirms our commitment to a balanced cash deployment strategy and further demonstrates our confidence in the company’s performance and our ability to achieve 9-plus percent operating margin in 2015,” Mike Petters, HII’s president and CEO, said in a statement.