General Electric Increases Dividend

The General Electric

board of directors raised the company's quarterly divident on Friday, as had been rumored. The dividend was raised $0.02 from %0.15 per outstanding share of common stock to $0.17. According to the board, the dividend is payable January 25, 2012 to shareowners of record at the close of business on December 27, 2011. The ex-dividend date is December 22, 2011. "We are pleased to increase GE's quarterly dividend for the fourth time in two years as our financial performance continues to accelerate," GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt said. "Our balanced and disciplined capital allocation plan has enabled us to achieve important goals including increasing dividends, redeeming the preferred stock held by Berkshire Hathaway, redeploying our NBCU capital to high growth energy acquisitions and investing in organic growth platforms.” “We believe that the GE business model will continue to deliver strong earnings and cash flow growth going forward."