RICHMOND, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE: MO) today announced that our Board of Directors voted to increase our regular quarterly dividend by 4.4% to $0.94 per share versus the previous rate of $0.90 per share. The quarterly dividend is payable on October 11, 2022 to shareholders of record as of September 15, 2022. The ex-dividend date is September 14, 2022.
The new annualized dividend rate is $3.76 per share, representing a dividend yield of 8.2% based on our closing stock price of $45.80 on August 24, 2022.
Today’s dividend increase reflects our intention to return a large amount of cash to shareholders in the form of dividends and is consistent with our long-term objective of a dividend payout ratio target of approximately 80% of our adjusted diluted earnings per share. This increase marks the 57th dividend increase in the past 53 years.
