PC Connection announces 38-cent dividend

PC Connection, basking in recently high quarterly earnings reports, announced last week that it will give out more than $10 million in dividends – about 38 cents a share.

"We recently reported our highest third-quarter operating income and earnings per share in more than a decade," said Timothy McGrath, President and Chief Executive Officer. "Our balance sheet and ability to leverage company assets are strong. We believe that this special dividend is an appropriate way to reward shareholders for their support."

The Merrimack-based direct marketer announced that it would be rewarding McGrath as well, by boosting his base salary by $75,000 to $825,000 and granting him 175,000 restricted stock units to be vested over eight years. At today's closing price of $11.05, the equity awards would be worth more $1.9 million.

At the beginning of November, PC Connection reported net quarterly profit of $9.9 million, or 37 cents a share, compared to a net income of $9.4 million during the same quarter in 2011, bringing its year-to-date net income to $24.2 million, or 91 cents a share.

The quarterly increase in profits came despite a 2.5 percent dip in sales to $561.3 million, although year-to-date sales increased by 3.4 percent to $1.6 billion.

The quarterly sales decrease was due to sales to larger businesses, which fell 6.7 percent, but that was due to some big product rollouts in 2011 that were not repeated in 2012. Quarterly sales also fell in the small and medium business segment — the company's largest, accounting for about 40 percent of its sales — but that's because the company included consumer and small office sales in that category for the first time this year. Consumer sales fell by 2.3 percent.

Sales to small businesses actually rose 2.2 percent. Net sales to public sector customers were up 3.2 percent.