Legal & General Group Plc Decreases Position in UniFirst Corporation $UNF

Legal & General Group Plc decreased its holdings in shares of UniFirst Corporation (NYSE:UNF) by 5.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 39,073 shares of the textile maker’s stock after selling 2,462 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.22% of UniFirst worth $7,537,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in UniFirst by 1.3% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 772,667 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $129,181,000 after purchasing an additional 9,576 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in UniFirst by 60.5% during the third quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 307,341 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $51,384,000 after buying an additional 115,802 shares during the period. Cooper Creek Partners Management LLC increased its position in UniFirst by 20.3% during the third quarter. Cooper Creek Partners Management LLC now owns 214,107 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $35,797,000 after buying an additional 36,179 shares during the period. Topline Capital Management LLC increased its position in UniFirst by 64.1% during the third quarter. Topline Capital Management LLC now owns 122,381 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $20,461,000 after buying an additional 47,819 shares during the period. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd increased its position in UniFirst by 16.4% during the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 122,213 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $20,433,000 after buying an additional 17,208 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.17% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on the company. Barclays lifted their price target on UniFirst from $250.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 12th. Weiss Ratings raised UniFirst from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on UniFirst from $206.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $228.25.

UniFirst Stock Performance

UNF opened at $269.72 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $259.52 and its two-hundred day moving average is $227.90. The company has a market cap of $4.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.55 and a beta of 0.63. UniFirst Corporation has a one year low of $147.66 and a one year high of $283.77.

UniFirst (NYSE:UNF) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 1st. The textile maker reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.21 by ($0.08). The firm had revenue of $622.51 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $614.91 million. UniFirst had a return on equity of 6.49% and a net margin of 5.49%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.31 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that UniFirst Corporation will post 7.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

UniFirst Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be given a $0.365 dividend. This represents a $1.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. UniFirst’s dividend payout ratio is currently 19.78%.

UniFirst Profile

UniFirst Corporation (NYSE: UNF) is a leading provider of customized uniform rental and facility service programs in North America and Europe. The company specializes in the rental, laundering and maintenance of workwear, corporate apparel and protective garments for a broad range of industries, including manufacturing, automotive, hospitality, healthcare and food processing. UniFirst also offers a suite of facility service products such as entrance mats, restroom supplies, wipers, mops and hygienic services designed to help customers maintain clean and safe environments.

In addition to its core uniform rental business, UniFirst has expanded its product portfolio to include safety and first-responder gear, flame-resistant clothing, high-visibility apparel and personal protective equipment (PPE).