World Kinect Co. (NYSE:WKC) Declares $0.17 Quarterly Dividend

World Kinect Co. (NYSE:WKC) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, December 16th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 23rd will be given a dividend of 0.17 per share on Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 23rd.

World Kinect has raised its dividend by an average of 11.9% annually over the last three years. World Kinect has a payout ratio of 27.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect World Kinect to earn $2.45 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.68 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 27.8%.

World Kinect Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of World Kinect stock opened at $28.05 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.16. World Kinect has a 52-week low of $21.21 and a 52-week high of $31.70. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $28.74 and its 200-day moving average price is $27.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.28.

World Kinect (NYSE:WKC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.62 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62. World Kinect had a net margin of 0.30% and a return on equity of 6.29%. The company had revenue of $10.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.77 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.58 earnings per share. World Kinect’s revenue for the quarter was down 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that World Kinect will post 2.12 EPS for the current year.

World Kinect declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan on Monday, September 9th that allows the company to buyback $200.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 11% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WKC has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of World Kinect from $29.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of World Kinect from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $33.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on World Kinect from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered World Kinect from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $28.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.20.

About World Kinect

World Kinect Corporation operates as an energy management company in the United States, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. This segment also offers fuel management, price risk management, ground handling, dispatch services, and trip planning services, such as flight planning and scheduling, weather reports and overflight permits; payment and processing services; and operates a web-based marketplace platform.