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Valspar (VAL) Rewards Shareholders with 12% Dividend Hike

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The Valspar Corporation’s (VAL - Free Report) board of directors has approved a 12% hike in its quarterly dividend. This marks the 39th straight year of dividend increase by the company.

Valspar has announced a quarterly dividend of 37 cents per share, up from the prior payout of 33 cents per share. The revised dividend is payable on Dec 15, 2016, to shareholders on record as of Dec 1. The company is part of the S&P High Yield Dividend Aristocrats which includes companies that have increased their dividends for at least 20 years in a row.

The company’s shares closed unchanged at $101.32 on Nov 17.   

Valspar recorded third-quarter fiscal 2016 adjusted earnings of $1.57 per share, up 18% year over year, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate. However, revenues fell 0.6% from the prior-year quarter, missing the consensus mark, primarily impacted by currency headwinds. Valspar ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of around $170.2 million, down 50.3% year over year. Long-term debt decreased around 8.8% year over year to roughly $1,557 million.

Valspar and Sherwin-Williams (SHW - Free Report) entered into a definitive merger agreement in Mar 2016. Per the deal, Sherwin-Williams will purchase Valspar for roughly $11.3 billion or $113 cash per share. The proposed merger received approval from Valspar’s shareholders on Jun 29 in a Special Meeting for Shareholders and is likely to conclude by the first quarter of calendar year 2017, subject to customary closing conditions.

Valspar currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked companies in the basic materials space include The Chemours Company (CC - Free Report) and Celanese Corporation (CE - Free Report) .

Chemours has an expected earnings growth of 44.7% for the current year. It sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Celanese has an expected earnings growth of around 9.5% for the current year. The stock carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

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