Hormel Foods Corporation today announced its Board of Directors has authorized a two-for-one split of the company’s common stock. This would be the first split in 10 years and the 9th in company history.

“We are excited to announce this proposed two-for-one stock split following a decade of strong performance,” said Jeffrey M. Ettinger, chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer at Hormel Foods. “This decision acknowledges our track record of providing our shareholders solid long-term returns and demonstrates our confidence that we will continue to grow our sales and earnings in the future. We anticipate this will also put our stock price in a more attractive trading range for a number of individual investors.”

Stockholder approval of the stock split is required during the company’s Annual Meeting being held on Monday, Jan. 31, 2011. Under the proposal, the number of authorized shares of voting common stock would increase from 400 million to 800 million.

The Board of Directors established Jan. 31, 2011, as the record date for stockholders who will be entitled to receive the split shares. One additional share of common stock will be issued to stockholders around Feb. 14, 2011, for each share of common stock they hold on the record date.