Rush Enterprises (NASDAQ:RUSHA) Reaches New 12-Month High After Dividend Announcement

Shares of Rush Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:RUSHA) reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday after the company announced a dividend. The stock traded as high as $65.43 and last traded at $61.99, with a volume of 636434 shares. The stock had previously closed at $61.17.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.29%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Rush Enterprises’s payout ratio is 19.30%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $69.00 target price on shares of Rush Enterprises in a research note on Wednesday.

Rush Enterprises Stock Down 4.4 %

The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $58.16 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $56.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 0.28. The stock has a market cap of $4.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.02.

Rush Enterprises (NASDAQ:RUSHA) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.82 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $2.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.86 billion. Rush Enterprises had a return on equity of 14.76% and a net margin of 3.90%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Rush Enterprises, Inc. will post 3.91 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Rush Enterprises

In other news, Director Michael Mcroberts sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.52, for a total transaction of $234,080.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 15,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $922,918.92. This trade represents a 20.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 12.53% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Dean Investment Associates LLC bought a new position in shares of Rush Enterprises during the third quarter worth about $1,986,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Rush Enterprises by 13.2% during the third quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,186,393 shares of the company’s stock worth $62,677,000 after buying an additional 138,488 shares in the last quarter. Costello Asset Management INC grew its holdings in shares of Rush Enterprises by 3,793.9% during the fourth quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 42,833 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,347,000 after buying an additional 41,733 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Rush Enterprises during the third quarter worth about $1,523,000. Finally, Tensile Capital Management LP bought a new position in Rush Enterprises in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,815,000. 84.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Rush Enterprises Company Profile

Rush Enterprises, Inc, through its subsidiaries, operates as an integrated retailer of commercial vehicles and related services in the United States and Canada. The company operates a network of commercial vehicle dealerships under the Rush Truck Centers name. Its Rush Truck Centers primarily sell commercial vehicles manufactured by Peterbilt, International, Hino, Ford, Isuzu, IC Bus, Blue Bird, and Dennis Eagle.