Walker & Dunlop, Inc. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.65 (NYSE:WD)

Walker & Dunlop, Inc. (NYSE:WD) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, November 6th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be paid 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 2.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd.

Walker & Dunlop has raised its dividend payment by an average of 20.5% annually over the last three years. Walker & Dunlop has a dividend payout ratio of 52.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Walker & Dunlop to earn $5.44 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 47.8%.

Walker & Dunlop Price Performance

WD opened at $110.99 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $110.18 and its 200 day moving average price is $102.83. The stock has a market cap of $3.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.85 and a beta of 1.55. Walker & Dunlop has a 12 month low of $68.88 and a 12 month high of $118.19.

Walker & Dunlop (NYSE:WD) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The financial services provider reported $1.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.16 by $0.07. Walker & Dunlop had a net margin of 8.41% and a return on equity of 9.65%. The firm had revenue of $270.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $274.50 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. Walker & Dunlop’s revenue was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Walker & Dunlop will post 5.32 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Stephen P. Theobald sold 13,870 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.10, for a total transaction of $1,471,607.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 53,869 shares in the company, valued at $5,715,500.90. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 5.47% of the stock is currently 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.