Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI) Declares Dividend Increase – $0.13 Per Share

Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, June 26th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 2nd will be paid a dividend of 0.13 per share by the blue-jean maker on Tuesday, August 20th. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 2nd. This is an increase from Levi Strauss & Co.’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12.

Levi Strauss & Co. has raised its dividend by an average of 44.2% per year over the last three years. Levi Strauss & Co. has a dividend payout ratio of 36.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Levi Strauss & Co. to earn $1.43 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.52 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 36.4%.

Levi Strauss & Co. Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of Levi Strauss & Co. stock opened at $18.32 on Thursday. Levi Strauss & Co. has a fifty-two week low of $12.41 and a fifty-two week high of $24.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 1.42. The company has a market capitalization of $7.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a fifty day moving average of $21.01 and a 200 day moving average of $19.74.

Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, June 26th. The blue-jean maker reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.11 by $0.05. Levi Strauss & Co. had a return on equity of 23.21% and a net margin of 2.34%. The company had revenue of $1.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.45 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.04 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Levi Strauss & Co. will post 1.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Levi Strauss & Co. news, Director David A. Friedman sold 4,166 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.37, for a total value of $80,695.42. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 162,510 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,147,818.70. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, Director David A. Friedman sold 16,666 shares of Levi Strauss & Co. stock in a transaction on Monday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.94, for a total value of $398,984.04. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 166,676 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,990,223.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director David A. Friedman sold 4,166 shares of Levi Strauss & Co. stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.37, for a total value of $80,695.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 162,510 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,147,818.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 626,548 shares of company stock worth $14,114,736 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 3.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on LEVI. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Levi Strauss & Co. from $17.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Bank of America raised their price target on Levi Strauss & Co. from $19.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, June 27th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Levi Strauss & Co. from $17.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Levi Strauss & Co. from $24.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 24th. Finally, OTR Global assumed coverage on Levi Strauss & Co. in a research note on Friday, June 14th. They issued a “positive” rating on the stock. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $23.38.

Levi Strauss & Co. Company Profile

Levi Strauss & Co designs, markets, and sells apparels and related accessories for men, women, and children worldwide. The company offers jeans, casual and dress pants, activewears, tops, shorts, skirts, dresses, jumpsuits, shirts, sweaters, jackets, footwear, and related accessories under the Levi's, Dockers, Signature by Levi Strauss & Co, Denizen, and Beyond Yoga brands.