Whirlpool Co. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $1.75 (NYSE:WHR)

Whirlpool Co. (NYSE:WHR - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, April 14th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a dividend of 1.75 per share on Sunday, June 15th. This represents a $7.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th.

Whirlpool has raised its dividend payment by an average of 8.7% per year over the last three years. Whirlpool has a dividend payout ratio of 61.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Whirlpool to earn $10.75 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $7.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 65.1%.

Whirlpool Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of WHR traded up $1.29 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $78.68. The company had a trading volume of 1,097,862 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,068,185. The company has a market capitalization of $4.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.43 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a current ratio of 0.72. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $92.33 and a 200 day moving average price of $105.72. Whirlpool has a 52 week low of $75.04 and a 52 week high of $135.49.

Whirlpool (NYSE:WHR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The company reported $4.57 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.26 by $0.31. Whirlpool had a negative net margin of 1.95% and a positive return on equity of 21.89%. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.85 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Whirlpool will post 9.52 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on WHR. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Whirlpool from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Whirlpool from $125.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $106.00.

Whirlpool Company Profile

Whirlpool Corporation manufactures and markets home appliances and related products and services in the North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Asia. The company's principal products include refrigerators, freezers, ice makers, and refrigerator water filters; laundry appliances, and commercial laundry products and related laundry accessories; cooking and other small domestic appliances; and dishwasher appliances and related accessories, as well as mixers.