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

UniFirst Co. (NYSE:UNF - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 14th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of 0.35 per share by the textile maker on Friday, March 28th. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.62%.

UniFirst has increased its dividend by an average of 8.5% annually over the last three years. UniFirst has a dividend payout ratio of 16.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect UniFirst to earn $8.65 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 16.2%.

UniFirst Stock Performance

Shares of UNF traded down $1.46 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $225.07. The stock had a trading volume of 143,839 shares, compared to its average volume of 336,080. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $192.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $187.84. UniFirst has a fifty-two week low of $149.58 and a fifty-two week high of $243.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.97 and a beta of 0.87.

UniFirst (NYSE:UNF - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The textile maker reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.22 by $0.09. UniFirst had a net margin of 5.99% and a return on equity of 7.47%. The business had revenue of $604.91 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $606.60 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.26 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that UniFirst will post 7.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on the company. UBS Group raised their price objective on UniFirst from $190.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of UniFirst from $199.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of UniFirst from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, UniFirst presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $197.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at UniFirst

In other news, major shareholder The Ronald D. Croatti Trust - 1 sold 9,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.97, for a total value of $1,814,215.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,390 shares in the company, valued at $3,320,968.30. This represents a 35.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Steven S. Sintros sold 3,207 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $193.04, for a total transaction of $619,079.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 22,571 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,357,105.84. This represents a 12.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 13,294 shares of company stock valued at $2,546,632 over the last quarter. 0.86% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.