date:Jun 15, 2012
y Pope, president and chief executive officer. This year, Smithfield aggressively returned capital to its investors through significant share repurchases. In the last 12 months, we repurchased 11.8 million shares, or 7 percent of the company, for $242 million. Ongoing share repurchases are a priority.
Our packaged meats business delivered another outstanding year and, in spite of higher raw material costs, grew operating profit by more than $50 million, or 2 cents per lb. Our strategy for growt