Stacking Up CBS’s Dividend Yield with the Competition

CBS (CBS) declared a dividend of $0.15 per share in fiscal 1Q16. Now let’s take a look at CBS’s five-year average dividend yield. CBS has a five-year average dividend yield of 1.2%. Among its peers, 21st Century Fox (FOXA), The Walt Disney Company (DIS), and Viacom (VIAB) have five-year average dividend yields of 0.8%, 1.2%, and 2.3% respectively.

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As the graph above shows, compared to CBS, Viacom has a higher five-year average dividend yield while 21st Century Fox had the lowest five-year average dividend yield among its peers—0.8%.

In fiscal 1Q16, CBS repurchased 10.3 million shares for $500 million. CBS stated on the company’s fiscal 1Q16 earnings call that it expects to complete its share repurchase program by the end of this year and will “continue to invest in our business first and foremost and return excess capital to shareholders. That is a key priority for us and it will remain a key priority for us going forward as well.”

At the end of fiscal 1Q16, CBS had a leverage ratio of 2.6x.