Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM) Board of Directors authorized the Company
to repurchase up to $750 million in additional shares of common stock
and declared a dividend of $0.37 per share of common stock. The
quarterly dividend will be distributed February 7, 2014, to shareholders
of record at the close of business on January 17, 2014. Since initiating
a dividend in 2004, Yum! has increased its dividend at a double-digit
percentage rate each of the past nine years, placing Yum! in a select
group of companies from the S&P 500 to do so.
The $750 million in additional share repurchases of the Company’s
outstanding common stock is authorized through May 31, 2015. Repurchases
of common stock may be made from time to time in the open market or
through privately negotiated transactions and will be subject to market
conditions and other factors. Year-to-date, the Company has repurchased
$708 million of shares of common stock at an average price of $68.
Yum!’s first priority with the operating cash it generates is to invest
in high-return global growth opportunities. In addition, Yum! is
committed to returning significant cash to shareholders. The Company has
returned $5.8 billion of cash through the combination of share
repurchases and dividends over the past five fiscal years.
Yum! Brands, Inc., based in Louisville, Kentucky, has over 40,000
restaurants in more than 130 countries and territories. Yum! Brands is
ranked #201 on the Fortune 500 List with revenues of over $13 billion in
2012 and in 2013 was named among the top 100 Corporate Citizens by
Corporate Responsibility Magazine. The Company’s restaurant brands -
KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell - are the global leaders of the chicken,
pizza and Mexican-style food categories. Outside the United States, the
Yum! Brands system opened on average over five new restaurants per day,
making it a leader in international retail development.
Copyright Business Wire 2013