Dole (NYSE:DOLE) Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Dole (NYSE:DOLE) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Saturday morning.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on DOLE. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Dole in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Stephens began coverage on Dole in a research report on Friday, September 12th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $16.00 target price on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating, According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $16.00.

Dole Stock Up 0.7%

Shares of DOLE stock opened at $14.04 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $13.28 and its 200 day moving average price is $13.85. Dole has a 1-year low of $12.20 and a 1-year high of $15.72. The company has a market cap of $1.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 1.01.

Dole (NYSE:DOLE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 10th. The company reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $2.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.25 billion. Dole had a net margin of 0.28% and a return on equity of 8.17%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.19 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Dole will post 1.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Dole declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Monday, November 10th that permits the company to repurchase $100.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 8.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Dole Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, January 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.085 per share. This represents a $0.34 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 9th. Dole’s payout ratio is 226.67%.

Institutional Trading of Dole

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in DOLE. Pale Fire Capital SE raised its position in shares of Dole by 1.2% in the first quarter. Pale Fire Capital SE now owns 6,269,939 shares of the company’s stock worth $90,601,000 after acquiring an additional 71,299 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Dole by 30.6% in the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,938,971 shares of the company’s stock valued at $66,380,000 after purchasing an additional 1,155,983 shares in the last quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Dole by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 4,073,685 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,009,000 after purchasing an additional 111,081 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Dole by 7.8% in the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,815,916 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,284,000 after purchasing an additional 276,997 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in Dole by 13.6% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,078,957 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,941,000 after purchasing an additional 248,703 shares in the last quarter.

About Dole

Dole Food Company, Inc (Dole) is a producer, marketer and distributor of fresh fruit and fresh vegetables. The Company is a producer of bananas and pineapples, and packaged fruit products, packaged salads and fresh-packed vegetables. The Company has three business segments: fresh fruit, fresh vegetables and packaged foods.