Winnebago Industries Announces Stock Repurchase and Dividend Increase

Winnebago Industries, Inc. (WGO), leading RV manufacturer, announced that the Company’s Board of Directors, in a meeting held today, announced a new $60 million stock repurchase authorization and an increase in the quarterly cash dividend.

As of May 26, 2007, $1.7 million remained available under the April 12, 2006 Board of Directors common stock repurchase authorization. The Board approved a new authorization for the purchase of up to an additional $60 million of the Company’s common stock. Winnebago Industries has repurchased approximately 24.4 million shares of common stock for approximately $356.8 million since December 31, 1997.

The Board also declared a quarterly cash dividend of 0.12 cents a share, payable on October 8, 2007 to shareholders of record as of September 7, 2007. This is a 20 percent increase compared to the previous quarterly dividend of ten cents a share.

“We continue to believe in our long-term strategy of returning profits to our shareholders,”’ Chairman and CEO Bruce Hertzke. “We believe that through the repurchase of our common stock and by increasing dividends we are effectively achieving those goals.” said Winnebago Industries.

It appears as though Winnebago is continuing to focus on shareholder value by increasing dividends and repurchasing shares on a regular basis.

On a macroeconomic scale, it makes sense the Winnebago should be increasing sales and revenues with the baby boomer population starting to hit retirement age, which is typically a demographic that will spend a lot of money on travel and recreation.

Chalk this one up to the watch list!

WGO 1-yr chart: