BUSINESS DIGEST ||

Dividend declared

canfield

On Tuesday, the board of directors of the Farmers National Banc Corp. declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.06 per share, a 50 percent increase from the 2016 fourth-quarter payment. The common stock cash dividend will have a record date of Dec. 8 and is payable to shareholders on Dec. 29.

Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings deal

ATLANTA

Atlanta-based Arby’s Restaurant Group Inc. and Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. on Tuesday announced that Arby’s will acquire Buffalo Wild Wings for about $2.9 billion.

The agreement has been unanimously approved by both companies’ boards of directors.

Arby’s, founded in Boardman in 1964 by the Raffel brothers, is the second-largest sandwich restaurant brand in the world with more than 3,300 restaurants in seven countries.

Buffalo Wild Wings Inc., founded in 1982 and headquartered in Minneapolis, has more than 1,250 locations in 10 countries.

The transaction is not subject to a financing condition and is expected to close during the first quarter of 2018.

Following the close of the transaction, Buffalo Wild Wings will be a privately held subsidiary of Arby’s and will continue to be operated as an independent brand. Paul Brown will serve as chief executive officer of the parent company.

Steel overcapacity

WASHINGTON D.C.

Ahead of the Global Steel Forum, U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Cleveland, and Rob Portman, a Republican from the Cincinnati area, have asked President Donald Trump to prioritize reducing steel overcapacity. The senators also urged the administration to take swift action on the 232 investigation, which has been pending for months.

Brown and Portman have teamed up to take on unfair foreign trade to boost the steel industry. In September, the senators wrote Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross urging a decision on the 232 investigation.

US home prices leapt in September by most in 3 years

WASHINGTON

U.S. home prices rose at the fastest pace in more than three years in September, lifted by a record-low supply of houses for sale.

The Standard & Poor’s CoreLogic Case-Shiller national home-price index released Tuesday rose 6.2 percent in September from a year earlier, the largest gain since June 2014. In 13 of the 20 cities tracked by the index, yearly price gains in September were faster than in August.

Home buyers are desperately bidding up prices because so few properties are available. The number of homes for sale in September was the fewest for that month on records dating back to 2001, according to the National Association of Realtors. And home builders aren’t yet putting up enough new homes to reduce the supply crunch.

Staff/wire reports

Selected local stocks

STOCK, DIVIDENDCLOSECHANGE

Alcoa Inc., .1243.371.33

Aqua America, .71 36.790.15

Avalon Holdings,2.150.15

Chemical Bank, .2755.631.81Community Health Sys. 4.19 -0.05

Cortland Bancorp, .2819.21-0.04

Farmers Nat., .1614.800.50

First Energy, 1.44 33.53-0.41

Fifth/Third, .5229.240.84

FirstMerit Corp.,--

First Niles Financial, .1211.000.00

FNB Corp., .4813.860.56

General Motors, 1.5244.930.76

General Electric, .9218.410.29

Huntington Bank, .28 13.970.47

iHeartMedia Inc.,0.85-0.07

JP Morgan Chase, 1.92101.373.44

Key Corp, .3418.490.48

LaFarge, .34--

Macy’s, 1.51 22.170.97

Parker Hannifin, 2.52 185.751.94

PNC, 2.20135.663.10

Simon Prop. Grp., 6.60156.06-0.33

Stoneridge 23.040.35

United Comm. Fin., .12 9.780.31

Selected prices from Tuesday’s 4 p.m. close.