Costco Wholesale has declared a special dividend of $10 a share.
The dividend, which will cost the retailer (ticker: COST) about $4.4 billion, will be paid to shareholders of record as of the close of business on Dec. 2. The company announced the move after the closing bell on Monday.
“This special dividend, our fourth in eight years, is our latest step to reward shareholders,” CFO Richard Galanti said Monday. “Our strong balance sheet allows us to pay this dividend, while preserving financial and operational flexibility to continue to grow our business globally.”
The stock sports a small yield of about 0.7%, compared with about 1.6% for the S&P 500. In April, the company declared a quarterly dividend of 70 cents a share, up by 5 cents, for an increase of nearly 8%–a sign of Costco’s durability during the pandemic.
Even during the recent Covid-related economic downturn, there has been much speculation about when Costco would issue its next special. It hadn’t done so since April 2017 when it declared one for $7 a share. It declared another one in early 2015 for $5 a share. And it issued one for $7 a share in 2012.
The company said that its latest special will be funded by existing cash.
For the most part, special dividends are rare. About 2% of the companies in the Russell 3000 Index have paid one this year.
Write to Lawrence C. Strauss at [email protected]
