Albertsons Companies, Inc. (ACI) To Go Ex-Dividend on January 24th

Albertsons Companies, Inc. (NYSE:ACI) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 8th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 24th will be paid a dividend of 0.15 per share on Friday, February 7th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 24th. This is a boost from Albertsons Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12.

Albertsons Companies has raised its dividend by an average of 4.6% annually over the last three years. Albertsons Companies has a dividend payout ratio of 20.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Albertsons Companies to earn $2.19 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.48 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 21.9%.

Albertsons Companies Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of ACI stock opened at $19.80 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.58, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.22. Albertsons Companies has a 1-year low of $17.00 and a 1-year high of $23.47. The company has a market cap of $11.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.51. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $19.33 and its 200 day moving average price is $19.31.

Albertsons Companies (NYSE:ACI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The company reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64 by $0.07. Albertsons Companies had a return on equity of 49.50% and a net margin of 1.25%. The company had revenue of $18.77 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.82 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.79 earnings per share. Albertsons Companies’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Albertsons Companies will post 2.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACI has been the subject of several research analyst reports. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Albertsons Companies from $27.00 to $24.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Albertsons Companies from $24.00 to $19.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Albertsons Companies in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of Albertsons Companies in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Melius raised shares of Albertsons Companies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $24.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.75.

About Albertsons Companies

Albertsons Companies, Inc, through its subsidiaries, engages in the operation of food and drug stores in the United States. The company’s food and drug retail stores offer grocery products, general merchandise, health and beauty care products, pharmacy, fuel, and other items and services. It also manufactures and processes food products for sale in stores.