Movado Group (MOV) will double its quarterly dividend to 20 cents per share in Q2 of 2021. Earlier this year the watches specialist reinstated a quarterly dividend of 10 cents per share. In 2020 Movado had suspended its quarterly dividend because of the coronacrisis. The company last raised its quarterly dividend by 53.8 percent to $0.20 per share in the second quarter of 2018.

The next dividend is payable on April 21, 2021 to shareholders of record on April 7, 2021. An annualized dividend rate of 80 cents per share will yield 2.8% at a stock price of $28.51. Movado's Board of Directors also approved a new share buyback program under which the company may purchase up to $25 million of its outstanding common shares.

The dividend and share buyback program announced today are consistent with the terms of the Company’s $100.0 million senior secured revolving credit facility after giving effect to the termination today of the previously-announced “Suspension Period” under that facility. During the Suspension Period, which commenced on April 30, 2020 in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the financial maintenance covenants in the Credit Agreement were temporarily relaxed while certain other covenants, including covenants related to dividends, share repurchases, debt incurrence, investments and capital expenditures, were temporarily tightened. The Suspension Period has ended today as a result of the Company’s achievement of certain financial milestones as of and for the periods ended January 31, 2021.

The annual dividend payment to shareholders will be estimated at approximately $19 million for Movado. The company also cut its dividiend in both 2009 and 2010, with the dividend being suspended in 2010 and reinstated again in 2011.

Movado Group, Inc. designs, sources, and distributes watches. The company's brands include Coach Watches, Concord, Ebel, ESQ Movado, Scuderia Ferrari Watches, HUGO BOSS Watches, Juicy Couture Watches, Lacoste Watches, Movado and Tommy Hilfiger Watches. Movade sells watches worldwide, and operates its own Movado company stores in the United States. The company had been paying a dividend since 2011 prior to the dividend suspension in 2020. Movado was incorporated in New York in 1967 under the name North American Watch Corporation to acquire Piaget Watch Corporation and Corum Watch Corporation, which had been, respectively, the exclusive importers and distributors of Piaget and Corum watches in the United States since the 1950’s.