Altria Increases Quarterly Dividend by 8.7% to $0.565 per Common Share

RICHMOND, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Altria Group, Inc. (Altria) MO today announced that its Board of Directors voted to increase Altria's regular quarterly dividend by 8.7% to $0.565 per common share versus the previous rate of $0.52 per common share. The quarterly dividend is payable on October 9, 2015, to shareholders of record as of September 15, 2015. The ex-dividend date is September 11, 2015.

The new annualized dividend rate is $2.26 per common share, representing a yield of 4.1% based on Altria's closing stock price of $54.73 on August 20, 2015.

Today's dividend increase reflects Altria's intention to return a large amount of cash to shareholders in the form of dividends and is consistent with Altria's dividend payout ratio target of approximately 80% of its adjusted diluted earnings per share. Altria has increased its dividend 49 times in the past 46 years.

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