Watsco, Inc. (NYSE:WSO) to Issue Dividend Increase – $3.00 Per Share

Watsco, Inc. (NYSE:WSO) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 1st, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a dividend of 3.00 per share by the construction company on Wednesday, April 30th. This represents a $12.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.35%. This is a 11.1% increase from Watsco’s previous quarterly dividend of $2.70.

Watsco has increased its dividend payment by an average of 11.5% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 12 consecutive years. Watsco has a payout ratio of 66.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Watsco to earn $16.05 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $10.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 67.3%.

Watsco Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of WSO opened at $511.19 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $496.49 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $499.26. Watsco has a 12 month low of $396.82 and a 12 month high of $571.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.58 and a beta of 1.00.

Watsco (NYSE:WSO) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The construction company reported $2.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.13 by $0.24. The business had revenue of $1.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.67 billion. Watsco had a return on equity of 17.59% and a net margin of 7.04%. As a group, research analysts predict that Watsco will post 14.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on WSO. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Watsco from $540.00 to $560.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Raymond James assumed coverage on shares of Watsco in a research note on Friday, January 17th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Loop Capital boosted their target price on shares of Watsco from $450.00 to $460.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $486.25.

About Watsco

Watsco, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the distribution of air conditioning, heating, refrigeration equipment, and related parts and supplies in the United States and internationally. The company distributes equipment, including residential ducted and ductless air conditioners, such as gas, electric, and oil furnaces; commercial air conditioning and heating equipment systems; and other specialized equipment.