Heinz Increases Dividend from $0.45 to $0.48

The H.J. Heinz Company HNZ announced today that its Board of Directors declared quarterly dividends on both common and preferred stock. The Heinz common stock dividend will be increased from 45.0 cents to 48.0 cents quarterly for all shareholders of record as of June 24, 2011, payable July 10, 2011. The new annualized dividend is $1.92, which represents an increase of $0.12, or 6.7%, versus last year's dividend. Including today's announcement, Heinz has increased the dividend almost 80% since Fiscal 2004, a compound annual growth rate of 7.5%.