RPM International will pay a quarterly dividend of 57 cents a share on October 30, up 5.6% from the 54 cents paid at the end of July, to shareholders on its books at the close of business October 20. The maker of Rust-Oleum, DAP and Tremco products declared the raise on October 8, two days after reporting record first-quarter sales of $2.22 billion. The board has now lifted the payout in October for several years running, and this year the increase comes with a narrower outlook for the rest of the fiscal year than the range the company gave earlier.
The October 20 cutoff for the 57-cent payment
Shareholders who hold RPM at the close of Tuesday, October 20, will receive the new rate on Friday, October 30, a gap of ten days. The three payments made earlier in the 2026 calendar year were all 54 cents, so the raise reaches shareholders for the first time on this payment. On 100 shares, the check rises from $54 to $57, and the annual rate moves from $2.16 to $2.28 a share if the board holds it for four payments.
The 57 cents arrives October 30, and RPM’s board has declared its next payment in the first days of January in each of the past three years.
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RPM’s own dividend history lists the declaration as October 8, with an October 20 record date and a payable date of October 30. The same table shows the declaration dates falling in the first days of January, April, July and October, so shareholders can expect the next one around the start of 2027. The July payment, declared July 1 with a July 14 record date, was the last one at the old 54-cent rate and paid on July 31.
Three raises in three Octobers
The history table shows a steady October step. The payout was 46 cents through July 2024, rose to 51 cents with the declaration on October 3, 2024, moved to 54 cents on October 2, 2025, and now reaches 57 cents. Each increase held for four payments before the next. The newest raise, at 5.6%, is slightly smaller than last year’s 6% and well under the 10.9% step from 46 to 51 cents.
RPM counts the habit in decades. A company release on its July dividend said the October 2025 raise extended its streak to 52 consecutive years of higher cash dividends, which the company called an elite category of less than half a percent of publicly traded U.S. companies. The same release said RPM has returned about $3.9 billion in cash dividends over that period and, citing stockanalysis.com, that only 39 other U.S. companies have a longer streak.
Record sales and a narrower outlook
The raise followed a quarter that RPM described as a record. Its Form 8-K for the quarter ended August 31 reported net sales of $2.22 billion, up 4.8% from $2.11 billion, diluted earnings of $2.01 a share against $1.77, and adjusted earnings of $1.98 against $1.88. Adjusted EBITDA reached a record $405.5 million, up 4.5%. Chairman and Chief Executive Frank C. Sullivan said the results put “the resilience of our associates and business model” on display.
The forward view is more guarded. RPM now expects full-year sales growth in the mid-single-digit range, replacing a prior range of 3% to 7%, and adjusted EBITDA growth in the mid-single digits, replacing a range of 5% to 10%. For the second quarter it expects sales and adjusted EBITDA to rise in the low to mid-single digits. Sullivan said he anticipates the consumer segment, which includes Rust-Oleum and DAP, will return to positive organic growth by the end of the year.
The cash cost of the dividend is visible in the last full-year report. RPM paid $271.7 million in cash dividends during the fiscal year that ended May 31, 2026, and the company returned $349.2 million to stockholders when share repurchases are included, according to its July 22 results release. That year’s record sales of $7.86 billion put the dividend at roughly 3.5% of revenue, a ratio that a 5.6% raise leaves close to unchanged.
Collecting the 57 cents on October 30
Holding the shares on October 20 is all the declaration asks. The SEC’s investor education site notes that a buyer who purchases on the ex-dividend date or after does not receive the next dividend payment, and that the ex-dividend date is usually the record date or one business day before it. For RPM, that puts the practical purchase deadline at or just before October 20, depending on how the exchange sets the date.
Shareholders with questions about a specific account start with their broker, which posts the payment. RPM lists Matt Schlarb, Vice President of Investor Relations and Sustainability, as its investor contact. Last year’s pattern gives a sense of timing: the October 2025 payment had an October 20 record date and was paid October 31, one day later in the month than this year’s October 30.
The test for the raise comes in January. RPM has told investors to expect mid-single-digit sales growth for the year, and its own 8-K shows the earnings gain in the quarter was 5.3% on an adjusted basis, almost exactly the 5.6% by which the dividend rose. The next declaration will show whether the board keeps pace with that rate or lets the 57-cent payment stand through a slower year.
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This article was researched and drafted with the assistance of AI and reviewed by The Money Overview editorial team.
