Constellation Brands and Murphy Oil Raised Their Dividends This Week

Text size

Constellation Brands

and

Murphy Oil

were among the small number of companies that declared dividend increases this week.

In addition, Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings (ticker: LH) initiated a quarterly dividend of 72 cents a share.

Labcorp
’s
portfolio includes diagnostics and drug development.

As of Thursday’s close, the stock’s year-to-date return was about minus 13%, compared with minus 5% for the

S&P 500. The stock’s implied dividend yield is about 1%. The dividend is payable on June 9 to shareholders of record at the close of business on May 19.

Meanwhile, Constellation Brands (STZ) said it plans to boost its quarterly payout to 80 cents a share from 76 cents for an increase of about 5%.

The company’s brands include Modelo beer and Svedka vodka. The stock, which yields 1.3%, has returned about minus 3% this year.

Murphy Oil (MUR) said it plans to boost its quarterly dividend to 17.5 cents a share, up about 17% from 15 cents.

The exploration-and-production company’s stock yields 1.7%, and it has returned about 60% this year.

Write to Lawrence C. Strauss at [email protected]