GM raises dividend by 20%

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co said on Wednesday it plans to raise its dividend by 20 percent, a move that comes as investors are calling on the auto giant to give them a bigger slice of the company's mounting pile of cash.

daily

weekly

GM Chief Financial Officer Chuck Stevens said in an interview Wednesday that further return of capital to investors could happen later this year as soon as legal issues tied to the recall of a defective ignition switch linked to at least 51 deaths are resolved. He added GM prefers to carry the high end of its targeted cash range of $20 billion to $25 billion until then.

monthly

"As we get more clarity on those open items, I would expect that we would continue to evaluate further return of capital to shareholders and that could happen as soon as the second half of this year," he told Reuters.
Stevens said the planned increase, which will boost the company's annual outlay for dividends by about $400 million to $2.4 billion, was due to the strong 2014 results and stronger performance expected this year.