Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.37 (NYSE:LW)

Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LW) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, March 20th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 2nd will be paid a dividend of 0.37 per share by the specialty retailer on Friday, May 30th. This represents a $1.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 2nd.

Lamb Weston has increased its dividend by an average of 15.3% per year over the last three years. Lamb Weston has a payout ratio of 38.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Lamb Weston to earn $3.64 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.48 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 40.7%.

Lamb Weston Stock Up 0.9 %

Lamb Weston stock opened at $52.19 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $53.11 and a 200 day simple moving average of $63.76. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.26. Lamb Weston has a 1-year low of $47.90 and a 1-year high of $89.51. The company has a market cap of $7.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 0.48.

Lamb Weston (NYSE:LW) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The specialty retailer reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.23. Lamb Weston had a return on equity of 27.82% and a net margin of 5.80%. The business had revenue of $1.52 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.50 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.20 earnings per share. Lamb Weston’s quarterly revenue was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Lamb Weston will post 3.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on LW. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Lamb Weston from $80.00 to $75.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $56.00 price target on Lamb Weston and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Lamb Weston from $72.00 to $66.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. StockNews.com downgraded Lamb Weston from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “hold” rating and set a $57.00 target price on shares of Lamb Weston in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Lamb Weston presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $70.64.

Lamb Weston Company Profile

Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc produces, distributes, and markets frozen potato products worldwide. The company operates through four segments: Global, Foodservice, Retail, and Other. It offers frozen potatoes, commercial ingredients, and appetizers under the Lamb Weston brand, as well as under various customer labels.