Viacom will not announce its latest earnings until just before the Nasdaq bell rings on Thursday, but it gave investors something to cheer with a quarterly cash dividend.
The media giant said it will pay out a dividend of $0.275 per share on both its class A and class B common stock. It will be payable in December.
Viacom, which owns Paramount Pictures and networks like Comedy Central and MTV, is looking to rebound after a lackluster third quarter. Ratings woes at Nickelodeon helped drive down profits at the company's cable unit. Profits fell 7 percent to $534 million from $574 million, a year ago, while earning per share climbed to $1.01. Revenues plunged 14 percent to $3.24 billion.
For the fourth quarter, analysts are anticipating a slight uptick and project earnings at Viacom of $1.17 per share.