Agrium Raises Annual Dividend By 50% To $3/shr; Sees Weak Q3 - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Agrium Inc. (AGU.TO, AGU), a retail supplier of agricultural products and services, Monday said it intends to increase dividend by $1 per share to a total of $3 per share on an annualized basis, as a part of its annual strategic review process. The company also provided its third-quarter forecast. Based on the closing price of Agrium's shares on the NYSE on September 20, this represents a dividend yield of 3.3 percent. The increased dividend is expected to be paid in quarterly installments of $0.75 per share. The next quarterly dividend of $0.75 per share is payable on October 17 to shareholders of record on September 30.

Agrium said that the soft nutrient prices, combined with lower sales volumes, are expected to impact the third quarter wholesale results across all three nutrients. Wholesale EBIT for the three-month period is expected to be about $200 million lower than same period last year. However, its Retail EBIT quarter is expected to surpass last year. Wholesale nitrogen, phosphate and potash sales volumes are expected to be down 20, 30 and 30 percent respectively, from last year. The company said the plant outages at its nitrogen facilities impacted volumes by approximately 100,000 tonnes, also hurting the costs. Benchmark nutrient prices in the third quarter are 20-30 percent below same period last year.