Walker & Dunlop (WD) Scheduled to Post Earnings on Thursday

Walker & Dunlop (NYSE:WD) is scheduled to be releasing its earnings data before the market opens on Thursday, May 2nd. Analysts expect Walker & Dunlop to post earnings of $0.83 per share for the quarter. Persons that wish to listen to the company’s earnings conference call can do so using this link.

Walker & Dunlop (NYSE:WD) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.04 by $0.38. The company had revenue of $274.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $276.76 million. Walker & Dunlop had a net margin of 10.18% and a return on equity of 9.15%. Walker & Dunlop’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.41 EPS. On average, analysts expect Walker & Dunlop to post $4 EPS for the current fiscal year and $6 EPS for the next fiscal year.

Walker & Dunlop Stock Down 2.5 %

Shares of WD stock opened at $91.63 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $3.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.81 and a beta of 1.53. Walker & Dunlop has a 52 week low of $61.06 and a 52 week high of $113.67. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $93.94 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $91.38.

Walker & Dunlop Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 1st were issued a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 29th. This is an increase from Walker & Dunlop’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.63. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.84%. Walker & Dunlop’s payout ratio is 81.76%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Walker & Dunlop

In other Walker & Dunlop news, Director Howard W. Smith III sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.81, for a total value of $1,876,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 191,508 shares in the company, valued at $17,965,365.48. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Walker & Dunlop news, Director Howard W. Smith III sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.81, for a total value of $1,876,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 191,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,965,365.48. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Gregory Florkowski sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.45, for a total transaction of $385,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 11,809 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,138,978.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 46,074 shares of company stock worth $4,328,255 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 5.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on WD shares. Wedbush downgraded shares of Walker & Dunlop from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $130.00 to $95.00 in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $105.00 price target on shares of Walker & Dunlop in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Walker & Dunlop from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $100.00.

Walker & Dunlop Company Profile

Walker & Dunlop, Inc, through its subsidiaries, originates, sells, and services a range of multifamily and other commercial real estate financing products and services for owners and developers of real estate in the United States. It operates through three segments: Capital Markets, Servicing & Asset Management, and Corporate.