General Mills is a very successful company with substantial growth in revenues and earnings during the past 10 years. The following information was contained in a recent annual report:

Based on this information, describe the dividend policy of General Mills. Assume that you are a financial analyst preparing a forecast of next year's operating results for General Mills. Net earnings for 1999 were $535 million, and the company paid out $33 1 million in dividends. Due to a number of factors, you believe that net income for next year will increase substantially and will be in the range of $900 to $950 million. To complete your financial forecast, you now need to estimate the total amount of dividends that General Mills will pay. What is your estimate?

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Dividend/ Income Dividend yield ratio Dividends per share (dollars) 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 62% 80% 72% 63% 81% 2.7% 3.1% 3.2% 3.3% 3.1% 64% 51% 49% 44% 3.5% 2.5% 2.3% 2.2% 2.16 2.12 2.03 1.91 1.88 1.88 1.68 1.48 1.28