EXCO Resources (NYSE: XCO) has declared a dividend for its first quarter. The company will hand out $0.05 per share on March 29 to shareholders of record as of March 15. That represents a 25% increase over the previous payout of $0.04, which had been distributed in each quarter since August 2010. Prior to that, the dividend was $0.03 per share.
The increase comes in spite of the firm's recently announced Q4 and full-year results, both of which saw declines in revenue and bottom line. The quarter's net loss deepened to $269 million ($1.25 per diluted share) from Q4 2011's $167 million ($0.78), while 2012's annual shortfall was $1.4 billion ($6.50) against a profit of $23 million ($0.10) the previous year.
The new dividend annualizes to $0.20 per share. That yields 3.1% at EXCO Resources' current stock price of $6.51.
