Walker & Dunlop, Inc. (WD) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.65 on December 6th

Walker & Dunlop, Inc. (NYSE:WD) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, November 6th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd will be given a dividend of 0.65 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, December 6th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.43%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd.

Walker & Dunlop has raised its dividend by an average of 20.5% per year over the last three years. Walker & Dunlop has a dividend payout ratio of 52.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Walker & Dunlop to earn $5.06 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 51.4%.

Walker & Dunlop Trading Up 0.1 %

NYSE WD opened at $106.89 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $110.71 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $103.83. Walker & Dunlop has a 12 month low of $81.14 and a 12 month high of $118.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.61 billion, a PE ratio of 38.18 and a beta of 1.55.

Walker & Dunlop (NYSE:WD) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by ($0.10). The business had revenue of $292.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $294.24 million. Walker & Dunlop had a net margin of 8.91% and a return on equity of 9.81%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.11 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Walker & Dunlop will post 5.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wolfe Research upgraded Walker & Dunlop to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Walker & Dunlop from $105.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. StockNews.com upgraded Walker & Dunlop from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, August 11th. Finally, Wedbush boosted their target price on shares of Walker & Dunlop from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th.

Insider Activity at Walker & Dunlop

In other news, COO Stephen P. Theobald sold 13,870 shares of Walker & Dunlop stock in a transaction on Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.10, for a total value of $1,471,607.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 53,869 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,715,500.90. The trade was a 20.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 5.26% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Walker & Dunlop

Walker & Dunlop, Inc, through its subsidiaries, originates, sells, and services a range of multifamily and other commercial real estate financing products and services for owners and developers of real estate in the United States. It operates through three segments: Capital Markets, Servicing & Asset Management, and Corporate.