As a Shareholder of General Mills, How Would You Have

Short Answer

As a shareholder of General Mills, how would you have reacted to the following announcement?
How would you expect the stock price to move? How does the company reflect the payment of cash dividends in its financial statements?
General Mills (NYSE: GIS) said today that its board of directors has approved an 8 percent dividend increase for General Mills common stock. The new quarterly dividend of $0.33 per share is payable Aug. 1, 2012, to shareholders of record July 10, 2012.
The new annualized dividend rate of $1.32 per share represents a yield of roughly 3.4 percent at recent market prices for General Mills shares.
"We view dividends and dividend growth as a key component of value creation for shareholders," said General Mills Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ken Powell. Over the past five years, which was a challenging period for the capital markets overall, General Mills' dividends per share increased at an 11 percent compound annual rate. The company's dividend yield has averaged roughly 3 percent over this same period.
General Mills has one of the longest dividend histories in corporate America. The company and its predecessor firm have paid shareholder dividends, without interruption or reduction, for 113 years.