Benchmark Electronics, Inc. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.17 (NYSE:BHE)

Benchmark Electronics, Inc. (NYSE:BHE) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, December 9th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.17 per share by the technology company on Tuesday, January 14th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.43%.

Benchmark Electronics has raised its dividend by an average of 1.0% annually over the last three years. Benchmark Electronics has a dividend payout ratio of 27.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings.

Benchmark Electronics Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:BHE traded down $0.03 on Monday, hitting $47.59. 142,808 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 302,638. The company has a market cap of $1.71 billion, a PE ratio of 27.99 and a beta of 0.99. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $46.23 and a 200-day simple moving average of $43.17. Benchmark Electronics has a 52 week low of $25.35 and a 52 week high of $52.57. The company has a quick ratio of 1.45, a current ratio of 2.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25.

Benchmark Electronics (NYSE:BHE) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The technology company reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $658.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $650.00 million. Benchmark Electronics had a net margin of 2.32% and a return on equity of 6.81%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.57 earnings per share.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Jeff Benck sold 24,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.90, for a total transaction of $1,101,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 424,173 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,469,540.70. The trade was a 5.36 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Rhonda R. Turner sold 6,000 shares of Benchmark Electronics stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.98, for a total transaction of $281,880.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 47,991 shares in the company, valued at $2,254,617.18. This represents a 11.11 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 2.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on BHE shares. StockNews.com cut Benchmark Electronics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on Benchmark Electronics from $45.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $42.33.

About Benchmark Electronics

Benchmark Electronics, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, offers product design, engineering services, technology solutions, and manufacturing services in the Americas, Asia, and Europe. The company provides engineering services and technology solutions, including new product design, prototype, testing, and related engineering services; and custom testing and technology solutions, as well as automation equipment design and build services.