Vail Resorts (MTN) will raise its quarterly dividend by 19.7 percent to $1.76 per share in the first quarter of 2019. This marks the 8th consecutive year of higher dividends by the mountain resort operator.

The next dividend payable on April 11, 2019 to shareholders of record as of March 27, 2019. A new annual rate of $7.04 per share yields 3.3% at a stock price of $216.55.

Rob Katz, Chief Executive Officer, said, "We remain confident in the strong cash flow generation and stability of our business model. We will continue to be disciplined stewards of our capital and remain committed to strategic, high-return capital projects, continuous investment in our people, strategic acquisition opportunities and returning capital to our shareholders through our quarterly dividend and share repurchase programs. We are pleased to announce that the Board of Directors has approved a 20% increase to our quarterly dividend and declared a quarterly cash dividend on Vail Resorts' common stock of $1.76 per share, payable on April 11, 2019 to shareholders of record on March 27, 2019. Additionally, during the second quarter we repurchased 155,111 shares of our common stock at an average price of $225.64 for a total of approximately $35.0 million." Katz added, "Our balance sheet remains very strong. We ended the second quarter with $158.6 million of cash on hand and our Net Debt was 1.9 times trailing twelve months Total Reported EBITDA."

Vail Resorts, Inc. is a mountain resort operator. Vail Resorts' subsidiaries operate mountain resorts and urban ski areas, including Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone in Colorado; Park City in Utah; Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood in the Lake Tahoe area of California and Nevada; Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia, Canada; Perisher in Australia; Wilmot Mountain in Wisconsin; Afton Alps in Minnesota and Mt. Brighton in Michigan. Vail Resorts owns and/or manages a collection of casually elegant hotels under the RockResorts brand, as well as the Grand Teton Lodge Company in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The company has paid a dividend every year since 2011.