Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Incorporated (NYSE:RBA) to Issue $1.08 — Dividend

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Incorporated (NYSE:RBA – Get Rating) (TSE:RBA) declared a — dividend on Monday, January 23rd, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 17th will be paid a dividend of 1.08 per share by the business services provider on Tuesday, March 28th. This represents a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 21st.

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers has raised its dividend by an average of 11.0% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 5 years. Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers has a dividend payout ratio of 39.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers to earn $2.60 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.08 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 41.5%.

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Stock Down 1.4 %

RBA opened at $52.84 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $59.97 and its two-hundred day moving average is $60.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.21. The company has a market cap of $5.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.48, a PEG ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.91. Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers has a one year low of $48.72 and a one year high of $72.73.

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers (NYSE:RBA – Get Rating) (TSE:RBA) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 21st. The business services provider reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $443.86 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $430.21 million. Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers had a return on equity of 25.58% and a net margin of 18.44%. Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers’s quarterly revenue was up 23.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.27 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers will post 2.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Mariner LLC increased its stake in Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers by 2.4% in the first quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 10,469 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $618,000 after purchasing an additional 248 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA increased its stake in Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers by 41.2% in the second quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA now owns 1,114 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $72,000 after purchasing an additional 325 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers by 1.6% during the second quarter. FMR LLC now owns 22,663 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,474,000 after acquiring an additional 363 shares during the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers by 3.6% in the 1st quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 11,057 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $653,000 after purchasing an additional 381 shares during the period. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 8,109 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $469,000 after purchasing an additional 465 shares in the last quarter. 81.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on RBA. StockNews.com began coverage on Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers in a research report on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Raymond James upped their price objective on Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 24th. National Bankshares upped their price objective on Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 22nd. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers from $62.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 24th. Finally, Scotiabank upgraded Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $59.00 to $65.00 in a research report on Monday, December 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $61.67.

About Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers

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Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, Inc is an industrial auctioneer, which engages in the sale of equipment to on-site and online bidders. It operates through the following segments: Auctions and Marketplaces, Ritchie Bros. Financial Services and Mascus. The Auctions and Marketplaces segment consists of live on site auctions, online auctions and marketplaces, and brokerage service.