Rio Tinto Group (NYSE:RIO) Plans Semi-annual Dividend of $2.23

Rio Tinto Group (NYSE:RIO) announced a semi-annual dividend on Monday, February 24th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of 2.23 per share by the mining company on Thursday, April 17th. This represents a dividend yield of 7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This is a boost from Rio Tinto Group’s previous semi-annual dividend of $1.77.

Rio Tinto Group has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 14.1% per year over the last three years. Rio Tinto Group has a payout ratio of 54.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Rio Tinto Group to earn $6.73 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.54 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 52.6%.

Rio Tinto Group Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE:RIO traded down $0.65 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $62.09. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,860,358 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,235,571. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 1.63 and a quick ratio of 1.16. The company has a market capitalization of $77.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.63, a P/E/G ratio of 0.42 and a beta of 0.65. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $60.64 and its 200 day moving average price is $62.94. Rio Tinto Group has a 52 week low of $57.85 and a 52 week high of $74.24.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on RIO. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Rio Tinto Group from $83.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com cut shares of Rio Tinto Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $73.00.

About Rio Tinto Group

Rio Tinto Group engages in exploring, mining, and processing mineral resources worldwide. The company operates through Iron Ore, Aluminium, Copper, and Minerals Segments. The Iron Ore segment engages in the iron ore mining, and salt and gypsum production in Western Australia. The Aluminum segment is involved in bauxite mining; alumina refining; and aluminium smelting.