Shenandoah Telecom pays special dividend

Shenandoah Telecommunications Company (SHEN) will pay a special cash dividend of $18.75 per share in 2021. This comes after a dividend hike of 17.2 percent last year and a 7.4 percent hike to 29 cents per share in 2019. The annual dividend rate of 34 cents yields 0.6% at a stock price of $56.81. The special dividend will yield 33%.

The special dividend is payable on August 2, 2021 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on July 13, 2021. In accordance with NASDAQ rules, the ex-dividend date will be August 3, 2021, the first business day after the payment date.  

The Company currently expects approximately $19.6 million of the special dividend to be reinvested in shares of the Company’s common stock via the Company’s Dividend Reinvestment Plan. The reinvested dividends are expected to be used to purchase shares of the Company’s common stock in market transactions during the thirty days following the dividend payment date.

The total payout to Shentel shareholders, before any reinvestments via the Company’s Dividend Reinvestment Plan, will be approximately $936.6 million.

“We are pleased to return over $936 million in value to our shareholders after the successful sale of our Wireless assets and operations to T-Mobile,” said the Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer Christopher E. French. “As we close our chapter as a provider of mobile wireless services, we are excited about the growth prospects of our broadband centric company and the opportunity to create shareholder value by providing the fastest internet services in our markets through our unique, integrated cable, fiber and fixed wireless broadband networks.”

 Shenandoah Telecommunications Company (Shentel) provides communications services through its network to customers in the Mid-Atlantic United States. The Company's services include: wireless voice and data; cable video, internet and voice; fiber network and services; and local and long distance telephone. The company has paid an annual dividend every year since 1960, when its predecessor Shenandoah Telephone Company declared its first dividend. Since 1960 the company has never cut its dividend.