Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity
ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES
Market Information
On January 28, 2025, our common stock began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “SFD.” Prior to that, there was no public market for our common stock. Smithfield is a majority-owned subsidiary of Hong Kong-based WH Group. WH Group is listed on the Hong Kong Exchange.
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Holders
As of March 5, 2025, there were approximately two record holders of the Company’s common stock and approximately 5,995 holders whose shares were held in street name by brokerage firms and financial institutions.
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
None.
Dividends
We have historically paid dividends to WH Group annually, along with special dividends in some years. On March 24, 2025, our Board declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.25 per share of common stock, which is payable on April 22, 2025, to shareholders of record on April 10, 2025. We anticipate the remaining quarterly dividends in fiscal 2025 will be $0.25 per share, resulting in an annual dividend rate in fiscal 2025 of $1.00 per share. The declaration of dividends is subject to the discretion of our Board and depends on various factors, including our net income, financial condition, cash requirements, business prospects, and other factors that our Board deems relevant to its analysis and decision making.
Securities Authorized for Issuance under Equity Compensation Plans
For information relating to securities authorized for issuance under equity compensation plans, see Part III, Item 12 of this Form 10-K.
Use of Proceeds
On January 21, 2025, our Registration Statement on Form S-1, as amended (File 333-284141), was declared effective. On January 29, 2025, we completed our IPO of 26,086,958 shares of common stock, which represents 7% of the total outstanding shares, at a price of $20.00 per share. We issued 13,043,479 shares of common stock bringing the total number of outstanding shares to 393,112,711. The remaining 13,043,479 shares of common stock were sold by our existing shareholders. Our existing shareholder granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 3,913,042 additional shares of our common stock. On February 20, 2025, the underwriters partially exercised such option and purchased 2,506,936 additional shares of common stock from our existing shareholder. The acting representatives for the underwriters were Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, BofA Securities, Inc. and Goldman Sachs & Co.LLC.
We received net proceeds from the IPO of approximately $236 million after deducting underwriting discounts, commissions and fees of $13 million. Upon receipt, the net proceeds from the initial public offering were held in cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities. There has been no material change in the planned use of proceeds from our IPO from that described in our Prospectus on Form 424B 4, filed with the SEC on January 29, 2025.
Shareholder Return Performance Graph
Not applicable.
ITEM 6. RESERVED
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