Questcor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOR) announced recently that the board of directors for the company has declared a quarterly dividend in cash of $0.30 for every share which means $1.20 annually. This is a 5 cent increase over the previous quarter’s dividend and a 50% increase over the previous year. This dividend was scheduled to be paid out on the 30th of October to shareholders of the record.
Dom M Bailey, President and CEO of Questcor said in an announcement that the second dividend for the year is testament to the company’s strong performance. He said that it was driven by the increasing use of Acthar, which is used to treat patients with very hard to treat medical conditions. He further added that the company was generating an increasing cash flow pointing to Questcor’s investment of $278 million in cash and investments at the beginning of October. This cash he said also includes $75 million in restricted cash which was unchanged from the second quarter of this year. The company he said will remain committed to using their cash to back investments in R&D and also returning cash to their shareholders. The payout to dividend ratio from the company has always been strong and consistent at around 20%.
Questcor Pharmaceuticals Inc is a well known biopharmaceutical company which specializes in the treatment of patients who have hard to treat diseases. It provides several specialty services to the global pharma industry through one of its subsidiaries that is wholly owned by the company, BioVectra Inc. Acthar Gel is the company’s main product which is a drug that is used to treat many difficult diseases. The company has been keen on pursuing research to develop new drugs to deal with the more difficult autoimmune and inflammatory disorders which are usually hard cases.
