Valmont Industries, Inc. (NYSE:VMI) Increases Dividend to $0.68 Per Share

Valmont Industries, Inc. (NYSE:VMI) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 19th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be given a dividend of 0.68 per share by the industrial products company on Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 28th. This is a boost from Valmont Industries’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60.

Valmont Industries has increased its dividend by an average of 6.3% annually over the last three years. Valmont Industries has a payout ratio of 12.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Valmont Industries to earn $19.23 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 12.5%.

Valmont Industries Stock Down 2.7 %

Shares of NYSE:VMI opened at $366.88 on Thursday. Valmont Industries has a fifty-two week low of $202.01 and a fifty-two week high of $379.22. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $323.00 and its 200 day moving average price is $311.36. The stock has a market cap of $7.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.36 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.55, a current ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58.

Valmont Industries (NYSE:VMI) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The industrial products company reported $3.84 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.63 by $0.21. The firm had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.01 billion. Valmont Industries had a return on equity of 23.42% and a net margin of 8.55%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.18 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Valmont Industries will post 17.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Valmont Industries

In other Valmont Industries news, Director Mogens C. Bay sold 20,000 shares of Valmont Industries stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $348.92, for a total value of $6,978,400.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 131,730 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,963,231.60. The trade was a 13.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 2.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Valmont Industries from $387.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. StockNews.com cut shares of Valmont Industries from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, DA Davidson lowered shares of Valmont Industries from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $380.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday.

About Valmont Industries

Valmont Industries, Inc operates as manufacturer of products and services for infrastructure and agriculture markets in the United States, Australia, Brazil, and internationally. It operates through two segments, Infrastructure and Agriculture. The company manufactures and distributes steel, pre-stressed concrete, composite structures for electrical transmission, substation, and distribution applications; and designs, engineers, and manufactures metal, steel, wood, aluminum, and composite poles and structures for lighting and transportation applications.