Flowers Foods Announces Three-for-Two Stock Split; Increases Annual Dividend Rate to $0.60

Prior to the Flowers Foods (NYSE: FLO) annual shareholders meeting today, the company's board of directors declared a three-for-two split of the company's stock by means of a 50% stock dividend and also increased the annual cash dividend by $.10. This equates to a 12.5% increase over the previous dividend rate. Both the stock split and the dividend are payable on June 24, 2011, to shareholders of record on June 10, 2011. Following the split, Flowers shareholders will own three shares for every two shares they held on the record date and their quarterly dividend rate will be $.15 per share, or $.60 per share on an annualized basis.