Vail Resorts (MTN) will suspend its quarterly dividend for the next two quarters because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year the mountain resort operator raised its quarterly dividend by 19.7 percent to $1.76 per share, marking the 8th consecutive year of higher dividends by the mountain resort operator.

Vail Resorts will pay the next quarterly dividend on April 9, but suspends the payment for the next two quarters. In the company's press release Vail provides a business update in response to COVID-19. Explaining the dividend suspension Rob Katz, Chief Executive Officer, said,"In this moment, we believe that maintaining liquidity is in the best long-term interests of the Company and our shareholders, and, as such, the Company's Board of Directors has made the decision to suspend our quarterly cash dividend for the next two quarters, preserving over $140 million of liquidity for our business. We remain committed to returning excess capital to shareholders and will re-evaluate decisions on capital allocation in December 2020. The Company's previously announced dividend payment occurring on April 9, 2020, is not affected by this suspension.

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 had paid a dividend every year since 2011 prior to the suspension announced in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.