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. Investors 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.65%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 2nd. This is a boost from Levi Strauss & Co.’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12.

Levi Strauss & Co. has raised its dividend payment by an average of 44.2% annually over the last three years. Levi Strauss & Co. has a dividend payout ratio of 32.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Levi Strauss & Co. to earn $1.47 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.48 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 32.7%.

Levi Strauss & Co. Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE LEVI opened at $19.59 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $7.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.97, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.19. Levi Strauss & Co. has a 52-week low of $12.41 and a 52-week high of $24.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 1.43. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $22.52 and its two-hundred day moving average is $19.28.

Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 26th. The blue-jean maker reported $0.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.11 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $1.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.45 billion. Levi Strauss & Co. had a return on equity of 23.11% and a net margin of 2.34%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.04 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Levi Strauss & Co. will post 1.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Levi Strauss & Co. news, Director David A. Friedman sold 16,666 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 3rd. The shares were 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 approximately $3,990,223.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, major shareholder Bradley J. Haas sold 26,959 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.14, for a total value of $542,954.26. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director David A. Friedman sold 16,666 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.94, for a total transaction 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 approximately $3,990,223.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 772,263 shares of company stock worth $17,256,670 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 3.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LEVI has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company 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 Thursday, April 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Levi Strauss & Co. from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Levi Strauss & Co. from $24.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Levi Strauss & Co. from $23.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on Levi Strauss & Co. from $19.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.33.

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.