Dominion To Boost Divident

RICHMOND (AP) – Utility company Dominion Resources Inc. is boosting its annual dividend rate by 7 percent.

Dominion said Friday that it will pay a first-quarter dividend of 52.75 cents per share on March 20 to shareholders of record as of March 2.

The company set its dividend for all of 2012 at $2.11 per share, compared with $1.97 per share in 2011. The company did not return a message asking why it increased the dividend.

In its most recent quarterly earnings report, the company said its profit fell from a year earlier. During the third quarter of 2011 the company earned $392 million, or 69 cents per share. That was down from $575 million, or 98 cents per share. Net income was hurt by higher costs, including those related to an August earthquake that shut down one of its nuclear plants, new air pollution regulations and hurricane outages.

The company will report its fourth-quarter earnings Jan. 27.