Shares of Coca-Cola Co. rallied 1.7% in afternoon trading Thursday, and are now a nickel shy of the Feb. 8 record close of $62.00, after the beverage giant raised its dividend and said it planned to resume repurchases this year. The new quarterly dividend of 44 cents a share, up from 42 cents, will be payable April 1 to shareholders of record on March 15. Based on current prices, the new annual dividend rate implies a dividend yield of 2.84%, which compares with the yield for the SPDR Consumer Staples Select Sector ETF of 2.31% and the implied yield for the S&P 500 of 1.44%. The company said it plans to buy back about $500 million worth of its shares in 2022, which represents about 0.2% of Coca-Cola’s current market capitalization of $267.58 billion. The stock has climbed 10.8% over the past three months, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has slipped 4.1%.
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