This month, Publix Super Markets plans to enact a 5‑for-1 stock split that will boost its number of authorized common shares from 1 billion to 4 billion.
Publix said Friday that its board of directors approved the stock split to be effective at of the close of business on April 14. For each share owned, stockholders will receive four additional shares.
After the 5‑for-1 split, Publix stock will begin trading at the adjusted price of $13.76 per share, the Lakeland, Fla.-based supermarket chain said. The company announced it also plans to pay a post-split dividend of 9 cents per share to stockholders of record on May 2.
As an employee-owned company, Publix doesn’t publicly trade its shares, which are available for sale only to associates and board members. Publix’s stock price stood at $68.80 per share as of March 1, when the company reported fiscal 2021 fourth-quarter results. That was up from $66.40 on Nov. 1 with the retailer’s third-quarter report.
Stock splits make shares of company easier to buy — providing a lower barrier to entry for new investors — without changing its market capitalization or current investors’ stakes in the business. Generally, stock splits indicate that a company is doing well because they typically occur when its share price is high.
For its 2021 fiscal year ended Dec. 25, Publix totaled sales of $48 billion, up 7% from $44.9 billion in 2020, when the company saw a 17.7% sales jump. Comparable-store sales climbed 5.4%, building on 16% growth in 2020.
Overall, Publix has more than 230,000 associates and operates 1,297 stores in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia.
