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Big Dividend Hike Expected for Lockheed Martin -- Barron's Blog
DOW JONES & COMPANY, INC. 10:22 AM ET 9/22/2016
Symbol Last Price Change
LMT 245.94 +2.12 (+0.87%)
QUOTES AS OF 10:53:26 AM ET 09/22/2016
Research firm Markit lists Lockheed Martin(LMT) on its list of companies likely to hike its dividend next week. They forecast a pretty sizable 13% hike, which would put its dividend yield over the key 3% level. The stock currently yields 2.8%.

Analyst Harshit Jain writes:

Markit expects Lockheed Martin Corporation(LMT) to opt for a 13% increase to $1.85 per quarter by Q4 FY '16, maintaining the forecasted payout in line with the guidance of paying approximately 50% of free cash flow to shareholders via dividends and share repurchases. Dividend growth has slowed to mid-teens (13-15%) since 2012, in their latest earnings call management stated they have seen cost reduction and efficiency opportunities emerging after the integration with Sikorsk. They also stated their plans on reducing the outstanding share count to below 300mm shares by the end of 2017. Therefore considering the above factors we expect a hike of 13% to $1.85 per quarter.

Lockheed has had a good year. It is up 20% in the past year and was nearly 1% higher in early trading on Thursday at $ 246. It was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo on September 19.

More at Barron's Income Investing blog, http://blogs.barrons.com/incomeinvesting/