UniFirst Co. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.35 (NYSE:UNF)

UniFirst Co. (NYSE:UNF) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 14th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of 0.35 per share by the textile maker on Friday, March 28th. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th.

UniFirst has raised its dividend payment by an average of 8.5% per year over the last three years. UniFirst has a payout ratio of 16.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect UniFirst to earn $8.68 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 16.1%.

UniFirst Trading Down 3.0 %

Shares of NYSE:UNF opened at $206.56 on Wednesday. UniFirst has a 12-month low of $149.58 and a 12-month high of $243.70. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $209.29 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $197.22. The firm has a market cap of $3.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.41 and a beta of 0.89.

UniFirst (NYSE:UNF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The textile maker reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.22 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $604.91 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $606.60 million. UniFirst had a net margin of 6.00% and a return on equity of 7.40%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.26 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that UniFirst will post 7.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other UniFirst news, VP David Martin Katz sold 1,299 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.95, for a total transaction of $274,024.05. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 6,455 shares in the company, valued at $1,361,682.25. This trade represents a 16.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.86% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on UNF shares. StockNews.com lowered shares of UniFirst from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. UBS Group increased their target price on UniFirst from $190.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th.

About UniFirst

UniFirst Corporation provides workplace uniforms and protective work wear clothing in the United States, Europe, and Canada. The company operates through U.S. and Canadian Rental and Cleaning, Manufacturing, Specialty Garments Rental and Cleaning, and First Aid segments. It designs, manufactures, personalizes, rents, cleans, delivers, and sells a range of uniforms and protective clothing, including shirts, pants, jackets, coveralls, lab coats, smocks, and aprons; and specialized protective wear, such as flame resistant and high visibility garments.