“We have no intent to cut the dividend to make that math work. We're going to earn back into it and the dividend is an important part of the value proposition.”

In context

“t we might hear more about late this year. Can you talk a little bit about the dividend? If you look at your payout guidance, it implies roughly $13 in earnings at the dividend level that you're paying now. Is there an opportunity to start to raise it more meaningfully before the earnings power of the business gets there? Or do you think we need to wait and get more increases like we saw this year until the business is supporting that more literally? Thank you. Carol Tome : We have a disciplined approach when it comes to capital allocation. The first use of our cash, as you know, is to invest back into our business and the second is to pay our dividend. We have a targeted dividend payout ratio of 50%. We are higher than that. It's our intent to earn back into a 50% payout ratio over time. We have no intent to cut the dividend to make that math work. We're going to earn back into it and the dividend is an important part of the value proposition. So we just raised the dividend and we look to, of course, subject to board approval, we look to raise the dividend every year. Any color you'd like to add here? Brian Newman : Just, Carol, this year marks the 15th consecutive year we've increased the dividend, and we're committed to a stable and growing dividend. So we will earn back into that, but certainly committed to it. Carol Tome : And I feel to respond to Daniel's question about minimum levels within the USPS contract. I'd like to throw that over to Matt. Matt, did you answer your question? Matt Guffey : Yeah, absolutely. So thank you, Carol. First of, yes, we do set minimums in the contract. As we built this, we identified a win-win for both the USPS and for us it's just imperative that, one, we not only have it on the protection”