L3 Technologies [LLL] on Monday hiked its quarterly dividend by a nickel to 75 cents per share, marking the thirteenth straight annual dividend increase by the $10.5 billion defense and aerospace company.
The 7 percent increase in the quarterly dividend reflects “the Board’s continued confidence in our financial position and outlook as we execute on our strategic growth initiatives,” Michael Strianese, L3’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement. “Our strong operational performance and free cash flow provide us with the flexibility to maintain a disciplined and opportunistic approach to capital deployment, and we will continue to focus on increasing shareholder value.”
In 2016 L3 generated $902 million in free cash flow and spent $386 million on acquisitions, $373 million on stock repurchases, and $220 million on dividends. The company expects to generate $865 million in free cash flow in 2017.
L3 officials last month on the company’s fourth quarter earnings call said the just as in 2016, the plan this year is to continue to shift from share repurchases to acquisitions as opportunities allow. In early January L3 completed its $118 million acquisition of Implant Sciences, which provides explosives trace detection technology for security screening application.
L3 still has a $500 million placeholder combined for share repurchases and acquisitions in 2017.