Eagle Materials Inc (NYSE:EXP) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.25

Key Points

• Eagle Materials declared a quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share, payable January 11 to stockholders of record December 14. That equates to $1.00 annually and a 0.5% yield.
• The dividend appears well covered: the payout ratio is 6.5%, and analysts expect a 7.7% payout ratio based on next year’s projected earnings.
• Quarterly earnings were $3.63 per share, below the $3.82 consensus estimate, while revenue of $652.75 million topped estimates and rose 2.2% year over year.

Eagle Materials Inc (NYSE:EXP - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 14th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share by the construction company on Monday, January 11th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 14th.

Eagle Materials has increased its dividend by an average of 0.6% annually over the last three years. Eagle Materials has a payout ratio of 6.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Eagle Materials to earn $13.02 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 7.7%.

Eagle Materials Stock Performance

EXP stock opened at $192.78 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $5.91 billion, a PE ratio of 15.24 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a current ratio of 3.23, a quick ratio of 1.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $179.76 and a 200-day moving average price of $202.36. Eagle Materials has a 1-year low of $160.02 and a 1-year high of $245.53.

Eagle Materials (NYSE:EXP - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 4th. The construction company reported $3.63 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.82 by ($0.19). Eagle Materials had a net margin of 17.32% and a return on equity of 26.87%. The business had revenue of $652.75 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $633.08 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $4.23 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Eagle Materials will post 12.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Eagle Materials news, SVP Tony Thompson sold 3,074 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $203.96, for a total value of $626,973.04. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 10,142 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,068,562.32. This represents a 23.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.70% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Eagle Materials

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Eagle Materials in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $688,486,000. W1M Asset Management Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Eagle Materials during the second quarter worth $155,199,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Eagle Materials during the second quarter worth $129,760,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in shares of Eagle Materials in the second quarter worth $66,255,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in shares of Eagle Materials in the second quarter worth $51,858,000. Institutional investors own 96.07% of the company's stock.

About Eagle Materials

Eagle Materials Inc NYSE: EXP is a U.S.-based manufacturer of building materials used in residential, commercial, infrastructure and industrial construction. The company's principal products include cement, gypsum wallboard, concrete and aggregates.

Its cement business produces and distributes Portland cement and related cement products, while its gypsum wallboard business supplies panels used in interior construction. Eagle Materials also provides ready-mixed concrete and construction aggregates, including crushed stone, sand and gravel, for building and infrastructure projects.

The company traces its history to Centex Construction Products, which was spun off from Centex Corporation in 1994 and later adopted the Eagle Materials name.

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