Ferguson plc Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.83 (NASDAQ:FERG)

Ferguson plc (NASDAQ:FERG) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, March 11th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 21st will be given a dividend of 0.83 per share on Tuesday, May 6th. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 21st.

Ferguson has a payout ratio of 29.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Ferguson to earn $10.62 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.16 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 29.8%.

Ferguson Stock Performance

FERG stock traded down $1.05 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $155.94. The company had a trading volume of 2,368,039 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,861,780. The company has a market cap of $31.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.28. Ferguson has a twelve month low of $154.09 and a twelve month high of $225.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 1.68. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $176.90 and a 200-day simple moving average of $191.11.

Ferguson (NASDAQ:FERG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 11th. The company reported $1.52 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.58 by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $6.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.76 billion. Ferguson had a return on equity of 34.63% and a net margin of 5.68%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.74 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ferguson will post 9.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on FERG. Citigroup dropped their price target on Ferguson from $189.00 to $168.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Oppenheimer dropped their target price on Ferguson from $234.00 to $189.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of Ferguson in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. They set an “overweight” rating and a $204.00 price target for the company. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Ferguson from $211.00 to $190.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $190.00 price objective on shares of Ferguson and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ferguson has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $201.64.

Ferguson Company Profile

Ferguson plc distributes plumbing and heating products in the United States and Canada. It offers plumbing and heating solutions to customers in the residential, commercial, civil/infrastructure, and industrial end markets. The company also provides expertise, solutions, and products, including infrastructure, plumbing, appliances, fire, fabrication, and others, as well as heating, ventilation, and air conditioning products under the Ferguson brand name.