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After Hours

Dell climbs, Scotts Miracle-Gro falls after hours

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Dell Inc. shares climbed Tuesday evening after the personal-computer maker said it would start paying a dividend, while shares of J.P. Morgan & Chase Co. rose after the financial firm's chief sounded an upbeat note about the company's coming quarter.

Dell shares (DELL) gained 3% at $12.33 after the company said that its board has adopted a dividend policy under which quarterly cash dividends will start being paid in the third quarter of the current fiscal year.

Dell expects to pay an initial dividend of 8 cents a share each quarter, or 32 cents a year. The dividend yield is 2.7% based on Monday's closing price of $11.86 a share.

Dell said its efforts to streamline operations and other measures "have resulted in sustainably strong cash flow from operations, enabling us to increase the percentage of capital we've allocated to research and development, capital expenditures and acquisitions while maintaining an continuing share repurchase program," said Brian Gladden, Dell's chief financial officer, in the statement. Read about Dell's first-ever dividend program.

J.P. Morgan (JPM) shares picked up 0.3% to trade at $33.87. Chief Executive Jamie Dimon, ahead of a hearing of the Senate Banking committee, said he expects the lender's second quarter to be "solidly profitable" as he outlined the steps the bank is taking in wake of a trading loss of at least $2 billion.

Dimon said the chief investment officer's strategy for reducing the synthetic credit portfolio was poorly conceived and vetted, that the traders didn't have the requisite understanding of the risks they took, and that the risk limits should have been specific to the portfolio, among other issues. Read full story about Jamie Dimon.

But hit in late trading were shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro (SMG) , down 17% at $35.64 after the plant fertilizer maker said third-quarter sales growth and adjusted earnings will fall short of its own projections. Purchases at its largest retail customers are up only 3% this year compared with 8% at the beginning of May, said Scotts. The company had expected sales growth of 6% to 8% and adjusted earnings of $2.65 to $2.85 a share.

Also lower were shares of Casey's General Stores Inc. (CASY) , moving down 6.4% to $58.06 in choppy trading. The convenience-stores operator said fourth-quarter earnings were unchanged at 60 cents a share as shares outstanding increased. Revenue increased 13% to $1.75 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected earnings of 67 cents on revenue of $1.74 billion. See more about quarterly results from Casey's General.

Ahead of the late-trading session, U.S. stocks rallied, with Dow industrials winning back losses in the previous session, as investors looked for signs of central bank action and any developments related to Europe. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) rose 163 points, or 1.3%, to 12,573.80. The S&P 500 Index (SPX) rose 15 points, or 1.2%, to 1,324.18 and the Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP) finished up 33 points, or 1.2%, at 2,843.07.