The FINANCIAL — The board of directors of Pfizer Inc. today declared a 22-cent second-quarter 2012 dividend on the company’s common stock, payable June 5, 2012, to shareholders of record at the close of business on May 11, 2012.
The second-quarter 2012 cash dividend will be the 294th consecutive quarterly dividend paid by Pfizer.
“Through dividends and share repurchases, we returned approximately $15.2 billion to our shareholders in 2011,” said Ian Read, chairman and chief executive officer. “In 2012, we are continuing to take actions to increase shareholder value, including through our dividend increase announced in December 2011, and continued share repurchase activity. In addition, we recently announced an agreement to sell our Nutrition business to Nestlé for $11.85 billion, and we remain on track to announce a strategic decision for our Animal Health business in 2012.”
Preliminary results from the meeting indicate that the company’s 14 continuing directors were re-elected to one-year terms and that shareholders ratified the selection of KPMG LLP as Pfizer’s independent registered public accounting firm for the 2012 fiscal year. In addition, shareholders voted in support of a board-sponsored proposal to approve, on an advisory basis, the compensation of the company’s named executive officers.
According to Pfizer, in other voting, four shareholder proposals were not approved by the shareholders.
The final results are subject to verification by the independent election inspectors. The final results will be reported in a Form 8-K to be filed by Pfizer with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the next few days.