The Dynamic Dividend

Cleco Raises Dividend. Twice.

Cleco Corp. (CNL) outlined plans to increase its dividend each of the next two quarters within today’s impressive fourth quarter earnings release.

The public utility holding company plans to top its most recent dividend of $0.25 per share by declaring a payout of $0.28 per share next quarter, which would be a 12% improvement. The following quarter, Cleco will up its payout another 11.6% to $0.3125 per share. The new annual dividend rate at that point will be $1.25 per share, or a 25% improvement over the current rate.

The company also posted fourth quarter earnings of $0.34 per share on $259.87 million in revenue, easily topping the consensus estimates for both profit ($0.27 per share) and sales (238.98 million).

Looking head, the company expects to earn $2.25 to $2.35 per share in 2011, while analysts are currently projecting a profit of just $2.27 per share, on average.

Shares of CNL closed at $31.29 today, where its future quarterly dividend of $0.3125 produces a 3.99% dividend yield.