Valmont increases dividend to 60c per share and announces $400M buyback

Valmont ndustries announced that its Board of Directors approved an increase to its quarterly dividend and a reauthorization of the current share repurchase program. Under the reauthorization, which will be effective once the current authorization is completed, the Company is authorized to purchase up to $400M of its outstanding common stock from time to time, by means of open market purchases or through privately-negotiated transactions. The reauthorization has no stated expiration date. The Company is not obligated to make any repurchases and may discontinue the program at any time. As of December 31 , the Company had approximately $81M remaining under the current share repurchase reauthorization announced in October 2018. Valmont currently has approximately 21.35M shares outstanding. The Valmont Board also approved an increase to its quarterly cash dividend to 60c per share, or a rate of $2.40 per share on an annualized basis. This represents an increase of 9% from the prior quarterly cash dividend of $0.55 per share. The dividend will be payable on April 14, 2023 to shareholders of record on March 31. The Company previously increased the dividend by 10% in February 2022. "Our record financial performance in 2022, including strong cash flow generation, creates further opportunities to meaningfully deploy capital. While we remain committed to a disciplined approach of growing our businesses and returning cash to shareholders, reauthorizing our stock repurchase program provides us with additional flexibility to leverage our performance," said Stephen G. Kaniewski, President and Chief Executive Officer. He continued, "The increase in our dividend is reflective of our earnings growth and we are focused on enhancing shareholder value as the strength of our business continues."