Coca-Cola announced on Thursday that the company’s board of directors has approved a dividend increase plan, which is the fiftieth consecutive time the company has raised the dividend.
The new quarterly dividend will increase by 8.5% from the original 47 cents per share to 51 cents per share, and these dividends will be distributed on April 1 to shareholders registered until March 15, 2012.
Coca-Cola said in a statement the quarterly dividend increase reflects the company’s confidence in the long-term cash flow.
According to the Coca-Cola’s 2011 financial reports, the 2011 annual revenue was $46.542 billion, up 33% year on year. The net profit fell from $11.809 billion to $8.572 billion, because Coca-Cola acquired the largest bottling plant CCE’s North American business at the price of $13 billion to 15 billion in March 2010, involving shares of $3.4 billion and undertaking $8.88 billion of liabilities.