Sportico reports that the parent company for the UFC and WWE, TKO, will double its dividend to Class A shareholders. The increase means the next quarterly payment will be $0.76 a share.
The dividend will return $150 million in capital to shareholders according to TKO. The news comes after the UFC signed a $1.1 billion deal with Paramount Skydance over the course of 7 years. In addition, the WWE entered into its own media deal with its PLE package to ESPN worth $1.6 billion.
Per company press release:
The Company intends to fund quarterly dividends with cash flow from operations and/or cash on hand. Future declarations of quarterly dividends are subject to the determination and discretion of TKO based on its consideration of various factors, such as its results of operations, financial condition, market conditions, earnings, cash flow requirements, restrictions in its debt agreements and legal requirements and other factors that TKO deems relevant.
In addition, the release announced a potential “upsize of its existing credit facility by up to $1.0 billion.”
Payout Perspective:
The dividend increase will help long-term investors especially mutual funds. It also reflects the success of the company as of now with two huge media deals coming within weeks of one another. At this point, TKO is one of the hottest stocks on Wall Street.
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