Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LW) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.36

Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LW) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, September 26th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 1st will be paid a dividend of 0.36 per share by the specialty retailer on Friday, November 29th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 1st.

Lamb Weston has raised its dividend by an average of 6.8% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 6 years. Lamb Weston has a dividend payout ratio of 28.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Lamb Weston to earn $5.14 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.44 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 28.0%.

Lamb Weston Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of LW traded up $0.30 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $66.80. The company had a trading volume of 2,279,161 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,494,220. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 1.29. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $62.18 and a 200 day moving average price of $78.52. Lamb Weston has a 52 week low of $52.99 and a 52 week high of $111.88. The company has a market capitalization of $9.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.18 and a beta of 0.75.

Lamb Weston (NYSE:LW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The specialty retailer reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.24 by ($0.46). The company had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.71 billion. Lamb Weston had a return on equity of 44.06% and a net margin of 11.22%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Lamb Weston will post 4.54 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on LW. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on Lamb Weston from $132.00 to $78.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Consumer Edge cut Lamb Weston from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Barclays lowered their price objective on Lamb Weston from $96.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Bank of America upped their price objective on Lamb Weston from $66.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut Lamb Weston from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $115.00 to $60.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $80.70.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director William G. Jurgensen acquired 10,000 shares of Lamb Weston stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 26th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $55.43 per share, for a total transaction of $554,300.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 173,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,610,287.11. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 1.66% of the company’s stock.

About Lamb Weston

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.