Leggett & Platt's Board of Directors announced a dividend of $.40 per share for the second quarter, equal to the dividend declared in the second quarter of 2019. The dividend will be paid on July 15, 2020 to shareholders of record on June 15, 2020.
A member of Standard & Poor's Dividend Aristocrats, Leggett & Platt has increased its annual dividend for 49 consecutive years, a record that only ten S&P 500 companies currently exceed.
At an annual indicated dividend of $1.60 per share, the yield is 5.9%, based upon yesterday's closing stock price of $27.03 per share. Leggett & Platt possesses one of the highest dividend yields among the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats.
Annual Meeting Results
The annual meeting of Leggett & Platt shareholders was held Friday morning in Carthage, Missouri. Shareholders elected as directors the 11 nominees proposed by the Board; ratified the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers as the Company's independent registered public accountant for 2020; approved the amendments to the Company's Flexible Stock Plan; and endorsed the compensation of the Company's named executive officers. No other proposals were voted upon.
Credit Agreement Amendment
On May 6, 2020, the Company entered into an amendment of its existing revolving credit facility to provide additional borrowing capacity under the financial covenant and further enhance Leggett's financial flexibility as it navigates the COVID-19 pandemic.
The financial covenant was amended from a calculation of total debt to trailing 12-months EBITDA to net debt to trailing 12-months EBITDA.
The covenant requires net debt to remain below 4.75x the trailing 12-months EBITDA through March 31, 2021. The ratio will be reduced by 0.5x every quarter through December 31, 2021 until it reaches and will remain at 3.25x. In addition, there is a new requirement that the Company cannot retain more than $300 million in cash without planned expenditures.
And how many people did they lay off? Did they take grants/loans from our taxes?
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