Nordson Co. (NASDAQ:NDSN) to Issue $0.78 Quarterly Dividend

Nordson Co. (NASDAQ:NDSN) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, March 6th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 20th will be given a dividend of 0.78 per share by the industrial products company on Thursday, April 3rd. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.50%.

Nordson has raised its dividend by an average of 17.5% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 62 years. Nordson has a payout ratio of 29.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Nordson to earn $10.89 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.12 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 28.7%.

Nordson Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NDSN opened at $207.81 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $11.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.69, a PEG ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a current ratio of 2.53. Nordson has a fifty-two week low of $196.83 and a fifty-two week high of $279.38. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $213.27 and its 200 day simple moving average is $237.61.

Nordson (NASDAQ:NDSN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.06 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.08 by ($0.02). Nordson had a net margin of 16.93% and a return on equity of 19.28%. The company had revenue of $615.42 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $639.40 million. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Nordson will post 10.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on NDSN. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $237.00 price objective (down from $294.00) on shares of Nordson in a report on Friday, December 13th. BNP Paribas cut shares of Nordson from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $219.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday, February 24th. DA Davidson reduced their price objective on shares of Nordson from $295.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Baird R W cut shares of Nordson from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Loop Capital raised Nordson from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $255.00 to $280.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $256.20.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Stephen Lovass sold 1,299 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.79, for a total transaction of $268,620.21. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 7,347 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,519,286.13. This represents a 15.02 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Nordson Company Profile

Nordson Corporation engineers, manufactures, and markets products and systems to dispense, apply, and control adhesives, coatings, polymers, sealants, biomaterials, and other fluids worldwide. It operates through three segments: Industrial Precision Solutions; Medical and Fluid Solutions; and Advanced Technology Solutions.