Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ: CTAS), a leading provider of corporate uniforms, has raised its annual dividend by 10% and changed its payout policy to a quarterly basis.
The company has stayed largely resilient to the COVID crisis so far. Recently, it reported an increase in second-quarter earnings, which also exceeded estimates, bringing cheer to shareholders.
Earnings per share increased to $2.62 from $2.27 in the second quarter of last year. Net income was $284.9 million, up 15.7% from the year-ago quarter. Revenues, meanwhile, decreased 4.7% to $1.76 billion and missed the estimates.
The company declared an annual dividend of $2.81 per share, which represents a 10.2 % rise from last year. It also changed the payout policy to a quarterly-basis from an annual payout. Analysts have upgraded their consensus estimate on the company’s earnings regularly, suggesting an improvement in sentiment around its earnings potential next year.
Read management/analysis’ comments on quarterly results
Shares of Cintas have gained about 30% in the past six months. They closed the last trading session down 2%.