Carnival Corp raised its quarterly dividend, continuing an upward swing over the past several years.
The Arnold Donald-led company today announced a first-quarter payout of $0.50 per share, up from $0.45 per share for the previous three-month period.
The latest dividend marks the first time that it has reached a half dollar since late 2012 in a one-time spike surrounded by several dividends of $0.25.
Following the $0.50 one-off, the payout remained at $0.25 for 10 quarters before ticking up to $0.30 for the last two quarters of 2015 and first quarter of 2016.
It then rallied to $0.35 for four consecutive quarters before hitting $0.40 per share and $0.45 per share for two consecutive quarter each, according to a historical chart on Carnival's website.
"It has been steadily climbing for the past few years in line with our improvement in results," Carnival spokesman Roger Frizzell said.
"It is important for us to continue to provide shareholder returns as we continue to strive for double digit return on invested capital."
In March, Carnival reported adjusted net income of $375m, up from adjusted net income of $279m a year earlier. Those results translated into respective earnings per share of $0.52 and $0.48.
Carnival's shares, which trades on the New York and London stock exchanges, edged up 0.25% to $63.32 by early afternoon.
Full sail ahead
Carnival's dividends should continue on the upside as it is expected to make more than $2.5bn in free cash flow over the next three years, said Buckingham Research Group analyst Daniel McKensie.
"We estimate CCL could comfortably reload its repurchase authorization by another $2B (5% of CCL's market cap)," he wrote in a note to clients.
