Lancaster Colony Co. (NASDAQ:LANC) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.95

Lancaster Colony Co. (NASDAQ:LANC) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 12th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of 0.95 per share on Monday, March 31st. This represents a $3.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.98%.

Lancaster Colony has increased its dividend payment by an average of 6.2% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 35 consecutive years. Lancaster Colony has a dividend payout ratio of 53.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Lancaster Colony to earn $7.25 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 52.4%.

Lancaster Colony Trading Up 0.5 %

LANC stock opened at $191.70 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $5.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.69 and a beta of 0.35. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $177.70 and a two-hundred day moving average of $180.90. Lancaster Colony has a 12 month low of $163.20 and a 12 month high of $209.81.

Lancaster Colony (NASDAQ:LANC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $2.22 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.94 by $0.28. The firm had revenue of $509.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $495.43 million. Lancaster Colony had a return on equity of 19.51% and a net margin of 8.26%. The firm’s revenue was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.87 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Lancaster Colony will post 6.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LANC has been the topic of several analyst reports. Loop Capital reduced their price target on Lancaster Colony from $232.00 to $227.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. DA Davidson lifted their target price on shares of Lancaster Colony from $192.00 to $207.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday. Stephens boosted their target price on shares of Lancaster Colony from $196.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Benchmark restated a “hold” rating on shares of Lancaster Colony in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Lancaster Colony from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $211.33.

Lancaster Colony Company Profile

Lancaster Colony Corporation engages in the manufacturing and marketing of specialty food products for the retail and foodservice channels in the United States. It operates in two segments, Retail and Foodservice. The company offers frozen garlic bread under the New York BRAND Bakery; frozen Parkerhouse style yeast and dinner rolls under the Sister Schubert's brand; salad dressings under the Marzetti, Simply Dressed, Cardini's, and Girard's brands; vegetable and fruit dips under the Marzetti brand; croutons and salad toppings under the New York BRAND Bakery, Chatham Village, and Marzetti brands; and frozen pasta under the Marzetti Frozen Pasta brand.