General Dynamics [GD] on Wednesday said it will hike its quarterly dividend by nearly 11 percent to 84 cents per share, marking the 20th straight the company’s board has authorized an annual dividend increase.
The current quarterly dividend is 76 cents per share. The increase to the dividend is pay able on May 5.
GD’s board also authorized the repurchase of an additional 10 million shares of the company’s stock.
Share repurchases and dividends are two ways that publicly traded companies reward their shareholders. Share repurchases help bolster a company’s per share earnings while dividends are a direct payment to shareholders.
GD spent $2 billion in 2016 on share repurchases and $900 million on dividend payments.