Power company Northeast Utilities, parent of Connecticut Light & Power Co. and Yankee Gas Services Co., raised the company’s annualized dividend rate to 95 cents from 85 cents.
The company, which plans to move headquarters to downtown Hartford from Berlin this year, declared a quarterly dividend of 23.75 cents payable on March 31 to shareholders of record March 1.
The dividend increase is part of the company’s 2009 initiative to target paying out to shareholders about 50 percent of its earnings in the form of common dividends.
NU said that going forward the company plans to revisit its dividend levels in the first quarter of each year, a change from the last several years where the company considered dividend levels in the second quarter.
NU also reaffirmed its 2009 outlook between $1.80 and $2 per share.
At 11 a.m., NU traded at $23.95, down a penny, or 0.04 percent. (AP)
