Quarterly cash dividend increase of 3 percent to 17 cents per share
Share
repurchase authorization of approximately 10% of outstanding shares
Donaldson Company, Inc. (NYSE: DCI) today announced that its Board of
Directors approved an increase to its quarterly cash dividend and
authorized a new share repurchase program.
"Our priorities for capital deployment, including investing in support
of our Strategic Growth Plan while also returning cash to our
Shareholders through dividends and share repurchase, remain critical to
our success over time," said Tod Carpenter, Donaldson's CEO. "I am
confident that maintaining consistency in our approach to capital
deployment creates long-term value for our Shareholders."
Donaldson's Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of 17
cents per share, an increase of 3 percent from the previous quarterly
cash dividend of 16.5 cents. The dividend is payable July 2, 2015, to
Shareholders of record as of June 16, 2015. The current declaration is
the 239th consecutive quarterly cash dividend paid by the
Company over a time span of 59 years.
Concurrent with the increase to its quarterly dividend, Donaldson is
also increasing the top-end of its targeted payout ratio to 45 percent
from 40 percent. The Company now expects its long-term dividend payout
will be between 35 percent and 45 percent of the average of its
three-year trailing earnings per share.
Additionally, Donaldson's Board of Directors authorized the repurchase
of up to 14 million shares of its common stock, or approximately 10
percent of its outstanding shares. The new repurchase authorization
replaces the existing authority that was approved in September 2013.
Through the third quarter of fiscal 2015, the Company has repurchased
approximately 11.6 million shares under the prior authorization of 15
million shares. Over the past 25 years, Donaldson has, on average,
reduced its outstanding shares by approximately 2.1 percent annually.
About Donaldson Company
Founded 100 years ago, Donaldson (NYSE: DCI) is a global leader in the
filtration industry. The Company's innovative filtration technologies
improve people's lives, enhance Customers' equipment performance, and
protect the environment. More than 12,500 employees support Customers at
140 sales, manufacturing, and distribution locations. For more
information, visit www.Donaldson.com.
Miscellaneous
The Company desires to take advantage of the "safe harbor" provisions of
the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act") and is
making this cautionary statement in connection with such safe harbor
legislation. This announcement contains forward-looking statements,
including, without limitation, forecasts, plans, trends, and projections
relating to our business and financial performance and global economic
conditions, which involve uncertainties that could materially impact
results. All statements other than statements of historical fact are
forward-looking statements. These statements do not guarantee future
performance.
The Company wishes to caution investors that any forward-looking
statements are subject to uncertainties and other risk factors that
could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements,
including but not limited to risks associated with: world economic
factors and the ongoing economic uncertainty, the reduced demand for
hard disk drive products with the increased use of flash memory,
currency fluctuations, commodity prices, political factors, the
Company's international operations, highly competitive markets,
governmental laws and regulations, including the impact of the various
economic stimulus and financial reform measures, the implementation of
our new information technology systems, information security and data
breaches, potential global events resulting in market instability
including financial bailouts and defaults of sovereign nations, military
and terrorist activities, including political unrest in the Middle East
and Ukraine, health outbreaks, natural disasters, and all of the other
risk factors included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly
Reports on Form 10-Q. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or
revise any forward-looking statements.
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Donaldson Company, Inc.
Brad Pogalz, 952-887-3753
May 29, 2015