Aviva PLC Acquires 915 Shares of Dillard’s, Inc. $DDS

Aviva PLC boosted its holdings in Dillard’s, Inc. (NYSE:DDS) by 60.4% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 2,431 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 915 shares during the quarter. Aviva PLC’s holdings in Dillard’s were worth $1,016,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Dillard’s by 1.8% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,325 shares of the company’s stock valued at $554,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its stake in Dillard’s by 12.3% during the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 293 shares of the company’s stock valued at $105,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC lifted its position in Dillard’s by 3.5% during the first quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 959 shares of the company’s stock valued at $343,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in shares of Dillard’s by 13.0% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 279 shares of the company’s stock worth $117,000 after buying an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Dillard’s by 62.3% in the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 99 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on DDS. UBS Group upped their price objective on Dillard’s from $175.00 to $184.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Dillard’s in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Telsey Advisory Group lifted their price target on shares of Dillard’s from $450.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 15th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Dillard’s from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Dillard’s from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Dillard’s currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $397.33.

Dillard’s Trading Down 0.4%

Dillard’s stock opened at $606.46 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.41 and a current ratio of 2.68. The stock has a market cap of $9.48 billion, a PE ratio of 16.73 and a beta of 1.15. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $601.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $496.34. Dillard’s, Inc. has a one year low of $282.24 and a one year high of $637.73.

Dillard’s (NYSE:DDS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 14th. The company reported $4.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $0.87. The firm had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.50 billion. Dillard’s had a net margin of 8.87% and a return on equity of 30.55%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $11.09 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Dillard’s, Inc. will post 33.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Dillard’s Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 30th were paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 30th. This is a positive change from Dillard’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. Dillard’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 3.31%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director J C. Watts, Jr. sold 750 shares of Dillard’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $594.60, for a total transaction of $445,950.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 10,250 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,094,650. The trade was a 6.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 34.80% of the company’s stock.

Dillard’s Company Profile

Dillard’s, Inc engages in the retail of fashion apparel, cosmetics, and home furnishings, and other consumer goods. It operates through the Retail Operations and Construction segments. The Retail Operations segment comprises sells cosmetics, ladies’ apparel, ladies’ accessories and lingerie, juniors’ and children’s apparel, men’s apparel and accessories, shoes, and home and furniture products.