Whirlpool Co. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $1.75 (NYSE:WHR)

Whirlpool Co. (NYSE:WHR) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, April 14th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be paid a dividend of 1.75 per share on Sunday, June 15th. This represents a $7.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th.

Whirlpool has increased its dividend payment by an average of 8.7% per year over the last three years. Whirlpool has a dividend payout ratio of 65.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Whirlpool to earn $10.75 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $7.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 65.1%.

Whirlpool Stock Performance

Shares of WHR stock opened at $84.03 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 0.44. The stock has a market cap of $4.67 billion, a PE ratio of -14.34 and a beta of 1.20. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $84.53 and a 200-day moving average of $102.63. Whirlpool has a one year low of $73.72 and a one year high of $135.49.

Whirlpool (NYSE:WHR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The company reported $1.70 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by $0.03. Whirlpool had a positive return on equity of 21.89% and a negative net margin of 1.95%. The company had revenue of $3.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.67 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.78 EPS. Whirlpool’s revenue was down 19.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Whirlpool will post 9.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WHR has been the subject of several research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Whirlpool from $125.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Whirlpool from $109.00 to $89.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Whirlpool from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $101.00.

About Whirlpool

Whirlpool Corporation manufactures and markets home appliances and related products and services in the North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Asia. The company's principal products include refrigerators, freezers, ice makers, and refrigerator water filters; laundry appliances, and commercial laundry products and related laundry accessories; cooking and other small domestic appliances; and dishwasher appliances and related accessories, as well as mixers.