The move comes in the first trading day after having announced its own special dividend.
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Other defensive measures, such as converting non-voting shares into common stock, and paying a special dividend, also look reassuringly shareholder-friendly.
Sirius also declared a special dividend of five cents a share, payable December 28 to holders of record December 18.
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While the company recently paid a special dividend, it last hiked its dividend by 25% to 15 cents in July 2012.
To put this number in perspective, total annual (not monthly, but annual) special dividend declarations have averaged 181 over the past eight years.
Jefferies joined several firms in announcing a special dividend last week.
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Whether paying a special dividend is a good thing is debatable.
Several companies have caught on the special dividend craze, deciding to return money to shareholders ahead of what could end up being a terrible fiscal cliff outcome.
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Buying in 10% of the shares is mathematically identical to paying a special dividend equivalent to 10% of the market cap and then declaring a 9-for-10 reverse stock split.
One of the drivers was the announcement of a special dividend from Costco (COST), which took the stock up in addition to positive news on November same store gains.
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National Express said it would offer 282.5 pence in cash and 0.375 of its shares for every Prism Rail share plus a special dividend of 40 pence per share.
The consequences are an extraordinarily large number of special dividend declarations, the early payment of typical first-quarter dividends, and the future adverse impact on dividend growth rates for certain companies.
The special dividend will be payable on October 10.
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They have discussed using some of the money raised for a one-off payment to the state, representing the bank's estimate of the present value of its future profits up to 2014, when the special dividend is due to be scrapped.
Even with the payout, Microsoft has piled up a huge cash position in recent years, and thus could easily finance a large acquisition or, should the mood strike its board, lay another special dividend on shareholders or simply increase its payout.
However, on May 30, 2012, the company paid a special dividend of 71.3 cents per ADS. As a result, the effective dividend yield of Grupo Aeroportuario is currently around 6.44%, which is significantly above its 5-year average dividend yield of 3.6%.
"Personal income in November and December was boosted by accelerated and special dividend payments to persons and by accelerated bonus payments and other irregular pay in private wages and salaries in anticipation of changes in individual income tax rates, " the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis said.
Having failed to do so he reversed course in 2008 and came up with a clever scheme in which he, along with China Netcom, PCCW's second-largest shareholder, would take the company private, buying out the other shareholders for slightly less than he would receive from the company in a special dividend issued after the deal's completion.
Wells Fargo also announced a substantial dividend hike, taking its Q1 dividend to 12 cents a share, up from 5 cents before, along with a special 7 cents dividend to be paid on March 31.
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Already, some firms are making special (and larger) dividend payments this year to avoid potentially higher taxes in 2013.
Many shareholders are clamoring for the company to declare a fatter dividend or a special one to ease some of their pain.
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