Altria Group Inc. MO, +0.84% said late Thursday its board of directors has approved a 14% increase to the cigarette maker's quarterly dividend to 80 cents a share from 70 cents a share. The dividend is payable Oct. 10 to shareholders of record Sept. 14, Altria said. The dividend increase reflects the company's intention "to return a large amount of cash to shareholders," Altria said in a statement. Shares of Altria were poised to end Thursday up 0.6% but are 17% in the red for the year, versus gains of 5.9% for the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.17% this year.
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