Aside from lording the rating game, GMA Network also marked a win in its stock price.
GMA Network’s share price surged on Monday, March 29–following the announcement of its largest-ever cash dividends to its investors.
The Network’s share price closed at 8.95 per share ending higher by 19.65% from its previous share price. This development happened after announcing that the Network will distribute 1.35 pesos per share dividends to their investors.
According to COL financial, this is the highest-ever dividend that GMA Network declared since their listing in 2007, which translates to an 18% yield.
“This is also the highest cash dividend that the company has declared since its listing in date in 2007,” said Frances Nicol, COL’s research analyst.
While the Network has yet to disclose its full-year earning, the dividend payable to their investors on May 18, 2021–is a good signal to their possible earnings. This resulted in the Duterte administration’s shutting down of its biggest rival ABS-CBN in May 2020.
Based on their latest financial report covering January to September 2020, GMA said its profit went up by 79% to 3.9 billion caused by the shift of advertising placement brought about by the shutdown of ABS-CBN’s free TV broadcast.
In the same period, the Kapuso network also disclosed an increase in ad revenues by 2% at 11.47 billion also due to ABS-CBN’s absence in free TV.
Additionally, their profit windfall is also contributed by the sales of their digital TV box receiver Affordabox which accounts for 4% of their revenue totaling 12.66 billion.