Federal Agricultural Mortgage Co. (NYSE:AGM) Raises Dividend to $1.50 Per Share

Federal Agricultural Mortgage Co. (NYSE:AGM) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 20th, NASDAQ Dividends reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of 1.50 per share by the credit services provider on Monday, March 31st. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a 7.1% increase from Federal Agricultural Mortgage’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.40.

Federal Agricultural Mortgage has increased its dividend payment by an average of 16.7% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 14 years. Federal Agricultural Mortgage has a payout ratio of 31.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Federal Agricultural Mortgage to earn $18.28 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $6.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 32.8%.

Federal Agricultural Mortgage Price Performance

NYSE:AGM opened at $190.86 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $197.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $196.09. The firm has a market cap of $2.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.60, a PEG ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.11. Federal Agricultural Mortgage has a one year low of $169.17 and a one year high of $217.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.58, a quick ratio of 0.49 and a current ratio of 0.49.

Federal Agricultural Mortgage (NYSE:AGM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 21st. The credit services provider reported $4.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.17 by $0.46. The business had revenue of $101.26 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $92.81 million. Federal Agricultural Mortgage had a return on equity of 19.43% and a net margin of 12.75%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $4.10 EPS. Research analysts expect that Federal Agricultural Mortgage will post 17.6 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Federal Agricultural Mortgage

In other news, CFO Aparna Ramesh sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.86, for a total value of $201,860.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 9,242 shares in the company, valued at $1,865,590.12. The trade was a 9.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Mitchell A. Johnson sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $205.21, for a total value of $513,025.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 8,644 shares in the company, valued at $1,773,835.24. This trade represents a 22.43 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.58% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Federal Agricultural Mortgage from $205.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th.

Federal Agricultural Mortgage Company Profile

Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation provides a secondary market for various loans made to borrowers in the United States. It operates through four segments: Corporate AgFinance, Farm & Ranch, Rural Utilities, and Renewable Energy. The company’s Agricultural Finance line of business engages in purchasing and retaining eligible loans and securities; guaranteeing the payment of principal and interest on securities that represent interests in or obligations secured by pools of eligible loans; servicing eligible loans; and issuing LTSPCs for eligible loans.