Altria Group, Inc. (MO) will increase its regular quarterly dividend by another 14.3 percent to $0.80 per common share in the third quarter of 2018. Earlier this year MO already hiked its dividend by 6.1 percent to $0.70 per share quarterly, marking the 49th consecutive year of annual dividend increases.

The next quarterly dividend is payable on October 10, 2018, to shareholders of record as of September 14, 2018. The ex-dividend date is September 13, 2018. The new annualized dividend rate is $3.20 per common share, representing a yield of 5.2% based on Altria’s closing stock price of $61.00 on August 17, 2018.

The company states that the dividend increase reflects Altria’s intention to return a large amount of cash to shareholders in the form of dividends and is consistent with Altria’s dividend payout ratio target of approximately 80% of its adjusted diluted earnings per share. Altria has increased its dividend 53 times in the past 49 years.

Altria Group, Inc. is a holding company. Altria’s wholly-owned subsidiaries include Philip Morris USA Inc., U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company LLC, John Middleton Co., Nu Mark LLC, Ste. Michelle Wine Estates Ltd. and Philip Morris Capital Corporation. Altria's tobacco brands include Marlboro, Black & Mild, Copenhagen, Skoal, MarkTen and Green Smoke. Altria also holds an equity investment in brewer SAB-Miller.