YUM! Brands, Inc. (YUM) will raise its quarterly dividend by 16.7 percent to $0.42 per share in the first quarter of 2019. This follows a 20.0 percent dividend hike by the restaurant operator last year.

The next dividend will be paid on March 8, 2019 to shareholders of record at the close of business on February 14, 2019. A new annualized dividend rate of $1.68 per share yields 1.8% at a stock price of $92.71.

Yum! Brands, Inc., based in Louisville, Kentucky, is a restaurant company. The company’s three concepts of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, develop, operate or franchise a worldwide system of restaurants which prepare, package and sell a menu of competitively priced food items. The company's franchisees range in size from individuals owning just one restaurant to large publicly-traded companies owning multiple restaurants.