Universal Corporation (NYSE:UVV) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.83

Universal Corporation (NYSE:UVV) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, November 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, January 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share on Monday, February 1st. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, January 11th.

Universal Price Performance

UVV stock opened at $39.63 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 2.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Universal has a 12 month low of $38.11 and a 12 month high of $59.38. The firm has a market cap of $986.91 million, a P/E ratio of 51.47, a P/E/G ratio of 12.41 and a beta of 0.61. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $42.60 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $50.13.

Universal (NYSE:UVV) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 4th. The company reported $0.39 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.58 by ($0.19). Universal had a net margin of 0.67% and a return on equity of 3.50%. The firm had revenue of $621.85 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $630.10 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.36 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Universal will post 3.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Universal from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 5th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Universal from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Universal from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Reduce”.

About Universal

Universal Corporation (NYSE: UVV) is a global agricultural products company primarily engaged in the procurement, processing and sale of leaf tobacco. Through its tobacco operations, the company purchases tobacco from growers, processes and stores the leaf, and supplies it to manufacturers of cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco and other tobacco products.

Universal handles several types of tobacco, including flue-cured, burley, dark air-cured and oriental varieties, as well as other specialty leaf products.