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

Valmont Industries, Inc. (NYSE:VMI) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 19th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 28th will be paid 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 dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. This is a boost from Valmont Industries’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60.

Valmont Industries has raised its dividend payment by an average of 6.3% per year over the last three years. Valmont Industries has a dividend payout ratio of 12.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Valmont Industries to earn $19.44 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 12.3%.

Valmont Industries Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE VMI opened at $362.89 on Friday. Valmont Industries has a twelve month low of $202.01 and a twelve month high of $379.22. The firm has a market cap of $7.27 billion, a PE ratio of 21.12 and a beta of 1.05. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $323.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $311.72. The company has a quick ratio of 1.55, a current ratio of 2.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

Valmont Industries (NYSE:VMI) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The industrial products company reported $3.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.63 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.01 billion. Valmont Industries had a net margin of 8.55% and a return on equity of 23.15%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.18 EPS. Analysts expect that Valmont Industries will post 18.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Valmont Industries

In related news, Director Mogens C. Bay sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $348.92, for a total transaction of $6,978,400.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 131,730 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,963,231.60. This represents a 13.18 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on VMI shares. DA Davidson downgraded shares of Valmont Industries from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $380.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday. StockNews.com lowered Valmont Industries from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Valmont Industries from $387.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday.

Valmont Industries Company Profile

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.