Wal-Mart raises dividend nearly 9 percent

March 1 - Wal-Mart Stores Inc raised its annual dividend by nearly 9 percent on Thursday, as momentum in the company's key Walmart U.S. chain has rebounded.

The world's largest retailer said that its board approved a dividend of $1.59 per share in fiscal 2013, which ends next January, up from $1.46 last year. Last year, Wal-Mart raised its dividend by 20.6 percent.

Wal-Mart has high expectations for the current fiscal year, with the core Walmart U.S. business "back on track," Chief Executive Mike Duke said in a statement.

Shares of Wal-Mart, a component of the Dow Jones industrial average, rose to $59.63 in premarket trading after closing at $59.08 on Wednesday.

Walmart U.S. posted its second straight rise in quarterly same-store sales last week, and traffic in the stores rose for the first time after six quarterly declines.

Wal-Mart's international business is still growing and the Sam's Club warehouse chain has also done well. Still, Wal-Mart continues to invest in areas such as e-commerce, where it trails

market leader Amazon.com Inc , and needs to cut costs to keep its prices low in the United States.

Wal-Mart has raised its dividend every year since it first declared a dividend of 5 cents per share in 1974.

The dividend will be paid in quarterly installments of 39.75 cents per share, with the first payment on April 4 to shareholders of record as of March 12.

Wal-Mart said that it returned $11.3 billion to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks last year.

(Reporting by Jessica Wohl in Chicago; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Dave Zimmerman)