MA MasterCard Incorporated

   By Maria Armental 
 

Mastercard Inc. (MA) is raising its quarterly dividend by 8 cents and its board approved a $6.5 billion share repurchase plan, the company said Tuesday.

The first 33 cents-a-share payout is slated for Feb. 8 to shareholders of record as of Jan. 9. The latest dividend boost is larger than previous increases in recent years, which each had added roughly 3 cents to the quarterly payout.

The $6.5 billion repurchase program for Class A shares will go into effect after the current program is exhausted. Mastercard has about $470 million left under last year's $4 billion authorization.

Mastercard, like other credit-card companies, has benefited by higher consumer spending. For the first nine months of the year, Mastercard reported that its profit surged by roughly one-third from a year earlier, to about $5 billion.

Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 04, 2018 15:55 ET (20:55 GMT)

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