Nordstrom earlier today announced a 2-for-1 stock split – its first in seven years – at its annual shareholders meeting at its downtown Seattle headquarters.

The stock split caps off a year in which it sold more than $7 billion is clothes, accessories and cosmetics, and follows a 31 percent increase in its first-quarter dividend to 17 cents a share announced on May 17.

The company's stock has been trading between $36.04 and $60.40 a share during the last year. It closed down 7 cents a share at $59.74 this afternoon in NYSE trading.

The dividend is payable June 15 to shareholders of record May 31.

The stock split, the company's seventh since going public in 1971, is payable on June 30 to shareholders of record June 13.

Shareholders also approved the addition of company president Blake Nordstrom and Robert Miller, chairman of Rite-Aid drugstores, to its board, replacing William Ruckelshaus and D.Wayne Gittinger, who are the company's mandatory retirement age of 72.