Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ:CALM) Raises Dividend to $1.49 Per Share

Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ:CALM) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 8th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 29th will be given a dividend of 1.489 per share by the basic materials company on Thursday, February 13th. This represents a $5.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 29th. This is an increase from Cal-Maine Foods’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.02.

Cal-Maine Foods has raised its dividend by an average of 340.3% per year over the last three years. Cal-Maine Foods has a payout ratio of 124.4% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect Cal-Maine Foods to earn $3.49 per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $4.08 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 116.9%.

Cal-Maine Foods Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CALM opened at $104.73 on Friday. Cal-Maine Foods has a fifty-two week low of $53.38 and a fifty-two week high of $114.06. The company has a market capitalization of $5.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.00 and a beta of -0.11. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $98.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $82.22.

Cal-Maine Foods (NASDAQ:CALM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 7th. The basic materials company reported $4.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.05 by $0.42. Cal-Maine Foods had a return on equity of 24.25% and a net margin of 16.09%. The business had revenue of $954.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $751.50 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.35 EPS. Cal-Maine Foods’s quarterly revenue was up 82.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Cal-Maine Foods will post 8.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. StockNews.com lowered Cal-Maine Foods from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. Stephens started coverage on shares of Cal-Maine Foods in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $82.00 price objective for the company.

About Cal-Maine Foods

Cal-Maine Foods, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, produces, grades, packages, markets, and distributes shell eggs. The company offers specialty shell eggs, such as nutritionally enhanced, cage free, organic, free-range, pasture-raised, and brown eggs under the Egg-Land's Best, Land O' Lakes, Farmhouse Eggs, Sunups, Sunny Meadow, and 4Grain brand names.