Capital One Financial Corporation (COF) cut its quarterly dividend by 75.0 percent to $0.10 per share in 2020. The last dividend hike was announced by the company in 2015, when the quarterly payment was boosted by a third to 40 cents per share.
The next dividend is payable August 20, 2020, to stockholders of record as of August 10, 2020. A new annual dividend rate of 40 cents per share yields 0.6% at a stock price of $65.47. In its press release the company does not provide further comment on this dividend cut.
It is not the first time that Capital One Financial Corporation announced a big dividend cut because back in 2009 during the financial crisis, the company lowered its payment to shareholders by 86.7 percent. This was followed by a 500 percent hike in 2013 and a 33.3 percent increase in 2015. Capital One Financial Corporation did not announce a dividend hike in the past four years.
Today's dividend cut will save the company a substantial amount of cash with the annual dividend payment to shareholders dropping from $724 million to $182 million. The company has a market cap of $30.5 billion with the stock price losing 36.4 percent year-to-date.
Capital One Financial Corporation is a financial holding company whose subsidiaries include Capital One, N.A., and Capital One Bank (USA), N.A.. The company, headquartered in McLean, Virginia, offers a broad spectrum of financial products and services to consumers, small businesses and commercial clients through a variety of channels. Capital One, N.A. has branches located primarily in New York, Louisiana, Texas, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and the District of Columbia. Capital One Financial Corporation has paid a dividend to shareholders every year since 1995.