Group 1 Automotive Pays 22% of Its Profit As Dividend

Group 1 Automotive, Inc. (NYSE: GPI) disclosed that its board has declared a cash dividend of $0.23 per share for the first quarter of 2016. On an annualized basis, this dividend translated into $0.92 a share. According to the company, the dividend, which represented an increase of 4.5 percent, or $0.01 per share, from the fourth quarter of the last year, accounted for about 22.0 percent of the profit.The current dividend payout ratio was better than the five-year average dividend payout ratio of 17.0 percent. It has been increasing the dividend in the last five-year period. As a result, the growth rate was 39.5 percent while the three-year average dividend growth pace was 12.35 percent.The dividend would be payable on June 15 to stockholders as it fixed the record date of June 1.On Wednesday, the stock traded up by 0.43 percent.