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

Valmont Industries, Inc. (NYSE:VMI) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 19th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 28th will be given a dividend of 0.68 per share by the industrial products company on Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. This is a positive change 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% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Valmont Industries to earn $17.96 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 13.4%.

Valmont Industries Trading Down 2.7 %

VMI traded down $10.10 on Wednesday, hitting $366.88. The company had a trading volume of 295,191 shares, compared to its average volume of 120,925. The company has a market cap of $7.35 billion, a PE ratio of 24.92 and a beta of 1.05. Valmont Industries has a 12-month low of $202.01 and a 12-month high of $379.22. The company has a quick ratio of 1.55, a current ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $322.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $310.97.

Valmont Industries (NYSE:VMI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The industrial products company reported $3.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.63 by $0.21. Valmont Industries had a return on equity of 23.10% and a net margin of 7.38%. The business had revenue of $1.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.01 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.18 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Valmont Industries will post 16.88 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Valmont Industries from $387.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. DA Davidson downgraded shares of Valmont Industries from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $380.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Wednesday.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Mogens C. Bay sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $348.92, for a total value of $6,978,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 131,730 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,963,231.60. The trade was a 13.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 1.90% of the company’s stock.

About Valmont Industries

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.