OREANDA-NEWS. Connecticut Water Service, Inc. (Nasdaq:CTWS) today announced that its Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.2825 per common share payable on September 15, 2016, for shareholders of record as of September 1, 2016. This quarterly dividend remains unchanged from the previous quarter and represents an annualized dividend of $1.13 per share. The Company’s annual dividend yield at the stock market closing price on August 25, 2016, was 2.3%. Connecticut Water has paid quarterly dividends on its common stock since its founding in 1956 without interruption or reduction and has increased dividend payments for each of the last 47 years.

Connecticut Water’s Board of Directors also declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.20 per share on Preferred A shares payable on October 14, 2016, for shareholders of record as of October 3, 2016, and a quarterly cash dividend of $0.225 on Preferred 90 shares payable on November 1, 2016, for shareholders of record as of October 19, 2016.

The Company’s Dividend Reinvestment Plan and Common Stock Purchase Plan (DRIP) is available to registered shareholders, employees, and residential customers of the Connecticut Water and Maine Water companies. Other investors who wish to participate in the DRIP should contact investor relations at the Company for more information. Additional information about the DRIP and the plan prospectus are available online at the Company’s investor relations website, http://ir.ctwater.com/, or upon request.

On May 13, 2016, a 5.6% increase in the cash dividend on common shares was approved by the Board and is reflected in the dividend declared on August 25. This increase accelerated the timing of the annual increase which historically had occurred in the third quarter of the year.  The accelerated timing combined with the increased quarterly dividend payment projects to a 6.2% increase in 2016 dividends compared to 2015.

Connecticut Water Service, Inc. is the largest publicly traded water company based in New England. Through its wholly-owned public water utility subsidiaries, The Connecticut Water Company and The Maine Water Company, the Company provides drinking water to approximately 124,000 customers, or about 400,000 people, in 77 municipalities throughout the states of Connecticut and Maine.