Coca-Cola raises dividend, to boost yield to about 3.3%

By Tomi Kilgore

Beverage giant increased its yield advantage over rival PepsiCo

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%.

-Tomi Kilgore

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02-15-24 1438ET

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