Saul Centers, Inc. (NYSE:BFS) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.59

Saul Centers, Inc. (NYSE:BFS) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, March 6th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a dividend of 0.59 per share by the real estate investment trust on Wednesday, April 30th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 15th.

Saul Centers has increased its dividend by an average of 14.8% per year over the last three years. Saul Centers has a payout ratio of 181.5% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Research analysts expect Saul Centers to earn $2.92 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.36 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 80.8%.

Saul Centers Stock Performance

BFS stock opened at $37.03 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $896.26 million, a PE ratio of 20.13 and a beta of 1.08. Saul Centers has a 12-month low of $34.98 and a 12-month high of $42.39. The company has a current ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.61. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $36.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $39.11.

Saul Centers (NYSE:BFS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 28th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.31. The business had revenue of $67.92 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $68.94 million. Saul Centers had a return on equity of 17.16% and a net margin of 20.84%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Saul Centers will post 3.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, StockNews.com cut Saul Centers from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday.

About Saul Centers

Saul Centers is a self-managed, self-administered equity REIT headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. Saul Centers currently operates and manages a real estate portfolio comprised of 61 properties that includes (a) 57 community and neighborhood Shopping Centers and Mixed-Use properties with approximately 9.8 million square feet of leasable area and (b) four land and development properties.