P&G shares remain flat amid three per cent dividend declaration

Shares in Procter & Gamble Company were relatively flat in after-hours trading in spite of the company’s declaration of three per cent dividend increase late Friday afternoon.

The Cincinnati-based multinational conglomerate announced that its Board of Directors on Friday declared a quarterly dividend increase from $0.6436 to $0.6629 per share on its Common Stock effective on May 15. The company also announced a dividend increase in its Series A and Series B ESOP Convertible Class A Preferred Stock of the Company effective on April 27.

“With this dividend increase, P&G is demonstrating its commitment to – and extending its long-term track record of – returning cash to shareholders,” Procter & Gamble said in a press release. “P&G has been paying a dividend for 125 consecutive years since its incorporation in 1890. This marks the 59th consecutive year that the Company has increased its dividend.

“The company expects to shell out roughly $7.4 billion in dividends to its shareholders in 2015. Over the past 10 years, Procter and Gamble said it has paid more than $55 billion to its shareholders in dividends.

With longstanding brands such as Crest and Oral-B toothpaste, Bounty laundry detergent, Charmin toilet paper and Gillette shaving products, P&G has operations in approximately 70 countries worldwide, according to its website. Earlier this month, Crest and Oral-B partnered with Disney to launch a new line of toothpaste and toothbrushes featuring characters from the hit movie Frozen.

Shares in Procter & Gamble fell 0.02 to 82.53 after closing at 82.55, down 0.97 on Friday’s session. Previously, shares in PG had been down roughly 10 per cent on the year.