SPI Gives Stock Instead of Cash as Surprise 4th-Quarter Dividend : Earnings: Word of payout comes a month after company said it was slashing by 75% its cash dividends for the quarter.

Holders of SPI Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s stock received a belated Christmas present Wednesday: additional stock instead of cash as a dividend for the fourth quarter.

Announcement of the payout came a month after the company said it was slashing by 75% its cash dividends for the quarter, a move that had prompted a sell-off of the stock.

The Dec. 4 decision to cut the quarterly dividend from 26.25 cents a share to 6.25 cents was in response to international sanctions against Yugoslavia. ICN Galenika, SPI’s drug subsidiary in Belgrade, has been limping along since the sanctions began, unable to secure raw materials for drug production.

SPI spokesman Paul Knopick said Wednesday that, even though the cash dividend had already been paid, the company “reviewed the balance sheet” and decided to add the stock dividend.

SPI, based in Costa Mesa, had a good year overall. Revenue for 1992 is estimated at more than $470 million, a 29% jump from the previous year, Knopick said. The company did not release an earnings projection for the year. An audited financial statement will not be released for at least a month.

Shareholders on record as of Jan. 25 will receive the retroactive dividend payout in common stock. The payment, to be made on Feb. 5, will be the equivalent of 20 cents a share. Including the stock dividend, SPI shareholders will have received $1.06 a share for 1992.

“That is what the board had intended to pay for the year,” Knopick said.

Wednesday’s announcement sent the price of SPI’s shares up sharply to close at $11.375 on the American Stock Exchange, a gain of $1.