HealthSouth Raises Dividend By 4.2%

HealthSouth Corp. said Thursday it will pay a quarterly dividend of 25 cents a share, on Oct. 16 to shareholders of record on Oct. 2. That's up a penny, or 4.2%, from the current quarterly dividend of 24 cents a share. Based on Wednesday's stock closing price of $45.79, the post-acute health care services provider's new annual dividend rate would imply a dividend yield of 2.18%, compared with the SPDR Health Care Select Sector ETF's dividend yield of 1.45% and the S&P 500's implied yield of 1.97%. HealthSouth's stock, which was still inactive in premarket trade, has rallied 11.0% year to date, while the health care ETF has climbed 16.8% and the S&P 500 has gained 10.5%.