Altria: What Will Be The 2015 Dividend Raise?

One area of the market where investors love to receive dividends is the cigarette industry. These names have had strong yields over time, with a history of dividend growth. In a couple of months, investors are expecting a dividend raise from Altria (NYSE: MO). Today, I'll provide my first preview in regards to this year's potential raise. The chart below shows a recent history of Altria's dividend. The 2015 value is the current $0.52 dividend, since three of the four payments this year will be at that rate.*The first value of $0.29 includes an adjustment for the PM spin-off. Altria paid a $0.29 dividend after the spin-off, but then raised it in the second half of the year to $0.32, the value you see above for 2009. The 2010 value presented is the $0.34 that was paid after the raise, but the first two declarations during the 2010 calendar year were $0.35, as the company raised it again. For the second half of calendar 2010 (presented as 2011 above), it was raised to $0.38, and Altria has not had any other non-standard raises since then.The first thing I like to look at when examining potential dividend raises is a company's balance sheet, and you can see the most recent one in this 10-Q filing. A couple of financial metrics, like the current ratio and working capital, have weakened in the past year. However, most of this weakness is due to $1 billion of Altria's long-term debt being shifted to the current portion of long-term debt category, as it is due within 12... Read more