(Source: CN press release, January 26, 2016)
MONTREAL — CN announced today that its Board of Directors has approved a 20 per cent increase in the Company’s quarterly cash dividend. With this increase, CN’s dividend on an annualized basis is C$1.50 per common share.
Luc Jobin, CN executive vice-president and chief financial officer, said: “We are pleased to uphold our track record of consistently returning cash to shareholders. This dividend increase is testimony to our confidence in the strong cash flow generation capacity of CN throughout business cycles, and reaffirms our objective of gradually increasing the dividend payout ratio toward 35 per cent.”
A quarterly dividend of thirty-seven-and-one-half cents (C$0.375) per common share will be paid on March 31, 2016, to shareholders of record at the close of business on March 10, 2016.
Including today’s announcement, CN has declared annual increases to its dividend 20 consecutive times, averaging 17 per cent per year, since its initial public offering of shares in 1995.