Cryolife Climbs on Dividend Hike - Analyst Blog

Shares of CryoLife, Inc. CRY rose 3.7% yesterday following the announcement of a 9.1% hike in 2014-second quarter cash dividend to 3 cents from 2.75 cents per share. The increased dividend reflect an annualized rate of 12 cents, up from the prior rate of 11 cents per share.

The new quarterly cash dividend will be paid on Jun 20, 2014 to stockholders of record as of Jun 13, 2014. The ex-dividend date for the quarterly dividend is Jun 11, 2014.

CRY pays quarterly dividends in Mar, Jun, Sep, and Dec of each year. This is the second hike announced by the company since it initiated the dividend payment less than two years ago.

Last year, CRY hiked dividend by 12.0% to 11.2 cents from 10.0 cents. Based on the number of current outstanding shares, CRY expects to pay dividends amounting to $3.4 million from Jun 2014 through Mar 2015.

For the first quarter of 2014, CRY posted earnings of $1.1 million or 4 cents per share, compared with $2.2 million or 8 cents per share in the same quarter of 2013. Revenues grew nearly 1.0% to a first quarter record of $35.7 million from $35.5 million in the first quarter of 2013.

CRY's net cash flows used in operations upped 66.7% to $2.0 million for the quarter from $1.2 million for the first quarter of 2013.

Kennesaw, GA-based Cryolife is a leading medical device company that focuses on cardiac and vascular surgery. Currently, it retains a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

Some better-ranked stocks that are also performing well in the medical instruments industry include Alphatec Holdings, Inc. ATEC, RTI Surgical Inc. RTIX, and Edwards Lifesciences Corp. EW. Both Alphatec Holdings and RTI Surgical carry a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), while Edwards Lifesciences carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

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