GE Sticks With $0.17 Dividend, For Now

General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) has announced that the company’s board of directors has declared a $0.17 per share quarterly dividend on its outstanding common stock. Our take is that this will likely be the last dividend at $0.17 as we expect a dividend hike from GE before the end of this year.

The payable date is on October 25, 2012 for those shareholders who are listed as of the record date of September 24, 2012.  The ex-dividend date will be September 20, 2012.

GE was one of the featured stocks in the 12 Stocks Expected To Hike Their Dividends Before the End of 2012. As a reminder, GE is now once again receiving dividends internally from its finance operations.

Today’s news may seem as though it is not that important because this $0.17 rate has been the same dividend payout for three consecutive quarters and that is prior to today’s dividend declaration.  We have maintained that General Electric will increase its dividend before the end of 2012 and if that is to occur it will now likely come in an announcement in early December. GE hiked its dividend three times since it slashed the old $0.31 payout down to $0.10 during the recession when liquidity was drying up.

GE’s current dividend yield based on a $21.48 share price is 3.16%.

JON C. OGG