McGrath RentCorp (MGRC) To Go Ex-Dividend on January 17th

McGrath RentCorp (NASDAQ:MGRC) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 12th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, January 17th will be paid a dividend of 0.475 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, January 31st. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 17th.

McGrath RentCorp has raised its dividend payment by an average of 3.1% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 32 consecutive years. McGrath RentCorp has a dividend payout ratio of 28.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect McGrath RentCorp to earn $6.40 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.90 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 29.7%.

McGrath RentCorp Price Performance

Shares of MGRC opened at $114.72 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $116.95 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $110.52. McGrath RentCorp has a 1-year low of $95.50 and a 1-year high of $130.86. The stock has a market cap of $2.82 billion, a PE ratio of 12.54, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.77.

McGrath RentCorp (NASDAQ:MGRC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The financial services provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.48. McGrath RentCorp had a net margin of 25.29% and a return on equity of 13.64%. The firm had revenue of $266.76 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $227.76 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.65 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that McGrath RentCorp will post 5.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Kimberly Ann Box sold 1,000 shares of McGrath RentCorp stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $114.62, for a total transaction of $114,620.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $859,650. The trade was a 11.76 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Gilda Malek sold 919 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $121.78, for a total transaction of $111,915.82. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 47,935 shares of company stock valued at $5,605,327 in the last three months. 1.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on MGRC. StockNews.com raised McGrath RentCorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of McGrath RentCorp from $124.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, CJS Securities assumed coverage on shares of McGrath RentCorp in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $152.00 price objective for the company.

About McGrath RentCorp

McGrath RentCorp operates as a business to business rental company in the United States and internationally. It rents and sells relocatable modular buildings, portable storage containers, and electronic test equipment. The company operates through four segments: Mobile Modular, Portable Storage, TRS-RenTelco, and Enviroplex.