Walker & Dunlop, Inc. (NYSE:WD) Declares $0.65 Quarterly Dividend

Walker & Dunlop, Inc. (NYSE:WD) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 2nd, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a dividend of 0.65 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, May 31st. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.79%.

Walker & Dunlop has raised its dividend by an average of 20.5% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 5 years.

Walker & Dunlop Stock Up 0.3 %

Walker & Dunlop stock traded up $0.28 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $93.04. 8,925 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 222,956. The company has a market cap of $3.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.17 and a beta of 1.54. Walker & Dunlop has a twelve month low of $61.06 and a twelve month high of $113.67. The company has a fifty day moving average of $93.91 and a 200-day moving average of $91.39.

Walker & Dunlop (NYSE:WD) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. Walker & Dunlop had a net margin of 10.18% and a return on equity of 9.15%. The business had revenue of $274.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $276.76 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.41 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Walker & Dunlop will post 4.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Walker & Dunlop news, CFO Gregory Florkowski sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.45, for a total transaction of $385,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 11,809 shares in the company, valued at $1,138,978.05. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, Director Howard W. Smith III sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.81, for a total transaction of $1,876,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 191,508 shares in the company, valued at $17,965,365.48. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Gregory Florkowski sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were 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 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. In the last three months, insiders have sold 46,074 shares of company stock valued at $4,328,255. Insiders own 5.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

About Walker & Dunlop

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.