Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. announced a quarterly dividend of 10.5 cents per share on common stock, payable June 28, 2013, to stockholders of record at the close of business June 3, 2013.

Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. reported unaudited consolidated earnings results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2013. For the quarter, the company reported net sales of $861.681 million compared to $984.258 million a year ago. Operating profit was $96.664 million compared to $47.710 million a year ago. Income before income taxes was $90.454 million compared to $40.351 million a year ago. Net income attributable to the company was $56.080 million or $0.87 per diluted share compared to $21.568 million or $0.34 per diluted share a year ago. Capital expenditures were $49.347 million compared to $37.062 million a year ago. Cash consumed by operating activities was $34 million during the first quarter. Capital expenditures for 2013 are expected to be between $195 million and $215 million. The company continues to believe that the full year effective tax rate will range somewhere between 29% and 34%.

The Iowa Court of Appeals has upheld a $32.8 million jury verdict against Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. in a tire-tread separation accident that killed one person and injured several others. The ruling affirms a 2010 jury verdict issued in Iowa's Polk County District Court that found Cooper Tire responsible for the Sept. 17, 2007, fatal rollover crash involving a group of employees from a local meatpacking plant who were carpooling in a van to work. The crash on Highway 65 between Des Moines and Marshalltown claimed the life of Assata Karlarj. Passenger Ivon Toe was paralyzed in the accident, and Josephine Cole, Sekou Jai, Jailah Nayou and Achol Deng Mawien were severely injured. Attorneys Kyle Farrar and Wesley Todd Ball of the Houston trial law firm Farrar & Ball, LLP served as lead counsel for the six passengers and their families, along with attorney Fred James of the James Law Firm in Des Moines and attorney John Gsanger of The Edwards Law Firm in Corpus Christi, Texas. Trial evidence showed that the rollover crash resulted from a tire defect that caused a catastrophic tread separation of the van's left rear tire. The victims' attorneys also told jurors how Cooper Tire executives knew that an updated tire design would be safer, but delayed necessary changes in order to save money. The trial court jury found that Cooper Tire defectively designed and manufactured the Cooper Lifeliner Classic II tire. The appellate decision in Ivon Toe, et al. v. Cooper Tire and Rubber Company, et al., No. 3-013/11-1588, was handed down April 24, 2013, affirming a jury verdict of more than $31.3 million in actual damages and $1.5 million in punitive damages.