Magic Software Enterprises Ltd. (NASDAQ:MGIC) Raises Dividend to $0.33 Per Share

Magic Software Enterprises Ltd. (NASDAQ:MGIC) announced a semi-annual dividend on Monday, March 17th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 22nd will be given a dividend of 0.327 per share by the software maker on Wednesday, May 7th. This represents a dividend yield of 4.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 22nd. This is a 38.6% increase from Magic Software Enterprises’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.24.

Magic Software Enterprises has decreased its dividend by an average of 0.3% per year over the last three years. Magic Software Enterprises has a payout ratio of 44.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Magic Software Enterprises to earn $0.99 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.47 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 47.5%.

Magic Software Enterprises Stock Up 2.4 %

NASDAQ MGIC traded up $0.33 on Monday, hitting $14.21. 123,679 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 54,780. Magic Software Enterprises has a 12 month low of $9.51 and a 12 month high of $14.25. The company has a current ratio of 1.76, a quick ratio of 1.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The company has a market cap of $697.70 million, a PE ratio of 20.35 and a beta of 1.11. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $12.65 and a 200-day moving average of $11.89.

Magic Software Enterprises (NASDAQ:MGIC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 11th. The software maker reported $0.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by ($0.01). Magic Software Enterprises had a return on equity of 15.42% and a net margin of 6.49%. The company had revenue of $142.58 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $137.00 million. As a group, analysts forecast that Magic Software Enterprises will post 0.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MGIC has been the topic of a number of research reports. William Blair lowered Magic Software Enterprises from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Magic Software Enterprises from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Magic Software Enterprises from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday.

Magic Software Enterprises Company Profile

Magic Software Enterprises Ltd. provides proprietary application development, vertical software solutions, business process integration, information technologies (IT) outsourcing software services, and cloud-based services in Israel and internationally. Its Software Services segment develops, markets, sells, and supports application platform, software applications, and business and process integration solutions and related services.