Dole (NYSE:DOLE) Approves Stock Repurchase Program

Dole (NYSE:DOLE) announced that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Monday, November 10th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $100.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 8.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on the company. Stephens initiated coverage on Dole in a research note on Friday, September 12th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $16.00 target price on the stock. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Dole in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Dole from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $16.00.

Dole Stock Down 1.3%

Shares of DOLE stock traded down $0.18 on Tuesday, hitting $13.62. 364,625 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 737,821. 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 has a 52 week low of $12.20 and a 52 week high of $16.86. The company has a market capitalization of $1.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.50, a PEG ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 0.65.

Dole (NYSE:DOLE) last posted 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). Dole had a net margin of 0.28% and a return on equity of 8.17%. The business had revenue of $2.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.25 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.19 earnings per share. Dole’s revenue was up 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Dole will post 1.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Dole Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, January 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 9th will be given a $0.085 dividend. This represents a $0.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 9th. Dole’s payout ratio is currently 226.67%.

Dole Company Profile

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.