Sysco Co. (SYY) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.51 on April 25th

Sysco Co. (NYSE:SYY) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 27th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th will be paid a dividend of 0.51 per share on Friday, April 25th. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.70%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th.

Sysco has raised its dividend payment by an average of 3.0% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 56 consecutive years. Sysco has a payout ratio of 41.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Sysco to earn $4.94 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.04 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 41.3%.

Sysco Stock Up 1.1 %

SYY stock opened at $75.53 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.42, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.17. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $73.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $75.65. The company has a quick ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.66. Sysco has a 52 week low of $69.03 and a 52 week high of $82.33.

Sysco (NYSE:SYY) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.93. Sysco had a net margin of 2.40% and a return on equity of 106.30%. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.89 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Sysco will post 4.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on SYY. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Sysco from $87.00 to $86.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Sysco from $86.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com cut shares of Sysco from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Sysco from $91.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Sysco from $79.00 to $77.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $84.77.

Insider Activity

In other Sysco news, EVP Greg D. Bertrand sold 48,027 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.00, for a total transaction of $3,698,079.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 56,304 shares in the company, valued at $4,335,408. The trade was a 46.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Eve M. Mcfadden sold 6,499 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total transaction of $519,920.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 48,451 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,876,080. The trade was a 11.83 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 76,370 shares of company stock worth $5,965,519 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.54% of the company’s stock.

About Sysco

Sysco Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in the marketing and distribution of various food and related products to the foodservice or food-away-from-home industry in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and internationally. It operates through U.S. Foodservice Operations, International Foodservice Operations, SYGMA, and Other segments.