Shares of Coca-Cola Co. gained Thursday, after the beverage giant raised its dividend, effectively increasing its yield advantage over rival PepsiCo Inc.
Coca-Cola said it is raising its quarterly dividend by 5.4%, to 48.5 cents a share, from 46 cents a share.
Shareholders of record on March 15 will receive the new dividend on April 1.
The stock
KO,
rose 0.2% in afternoon trading.
At current stock prices, the new annual dividend rate of $1.94 a share implies a dividend yield of 3.27%.
That compares with the yield for PepsiCo’s stock
PEP,
of 3.02%, for the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF
XLP
of 2.59% and the implied yield for the S&P 500 index
SPX
of 1.42%.
Coca-Cola’s dividend announcement comes two days after the company released its fourth-quarter results, in which profit matched expectations while revenue rose above forecasts.
It also comes about a week after PepsiCo declared a regular quarterly dividend of $1.265 per share, which was increased a year ago from $1.15.
Coca-Cola’s stock has eased 0.3% over the past 12 months, while shares of rival PepsiCo have declined 4.7%, the SPDR consumer staples ETF has slipped 0.1% and the S&P 500 has rallied 21.2%.
