Cat maintains dividend

Caterpillar Inc.'s board of directors voted Wednesday to maintain the company's quarterly cash dividend at 46 cents per share of common stock.

The dividend is payable May 19 to stockholders of record at the close of business on April 23, the company said in a news release.

"I am pleased to announce we are maintaining Caterpillar's dividend. Our priorities for uses of cash remain unchanged. The top priority is to maintain financial strength, followed by investing for growth for the business, funding employee benefit plans, and making distributions to stockholders," said Caterpillar Chairman Doug Oberhelman in the news release.

"We remain focused on executing our strategy, with a particular emphasis on supporting our customers, and as I regularly meet with customers, I know that focus will also benefit our stockholders over time," he said.

The company said it has paid higher dividends to its shareholders for 18 years consecutive years and that its cash dividend has more than tripled since 1998.

"Including the announcement today, Caterpillar has paid a cash dividend every year since the company was formed in 1925 and has paid a dividend every quarter since November 1933," the company said.

Caterpillar will announce its first quarter financial results on April 25.

About the Author

Paul Gordon is the editor of The Peorian after spending 29 years of indentured servitude at the Peoria Journal Star. He’s an award-winning writer, raconteur and song-and-dance man. He also went to a high school whose team name is the Alices (that’s Vincennes Lincoln High School in Indiana; you can look it up).