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

Walker & Dunlop, Inc. (NYSE:WD) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 2nd, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be paid 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 dividend 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 annually for the last 5 consecutive years.

Walker & Dunlop Stock Up 0.3 %

Walker & Dunlop stock traded up $0.28 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $93.04. 8,925 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 222,956. The business has a fifty day moving average of $93.91 and a 200 day moving average of $91.39. Walker & Dunlop has a 1-year low of $61.06 and a 1-year high of $113.67. The company has a market capitalization of $3.13 billion, a PE ratio of 29.17 and a beta of 1.54.

Walker & Dunlop (NYSE:WD) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.04 by $0.38. The firm had revenue of $274.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $276.76 million. Walker & Dunlop had a return on equity of 9.15% and a net margin of 10.18%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.41 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Walker & Dunlop will post 4.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Walker & Dunlop

In other news, Director Howard W. Smith III sold 20,166 shares of Walker & Dunlop stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.56, for a total transaction of $1,886,730.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 191,508 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,917,488.48. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Walker & Dunlop news, Director Howard W. Smith III sold 20,166 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.56, for a total value of $1,886,730.96. Following the sale, the director now owns 191,508 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,917,488.48. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, 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 value of $1,876,200.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 191,508 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,965,365.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 46,074 shares of company stock worth $4,328,255. 5.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. StockNews.com lowered Walker & Dunlop from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Wedbush lowered Walker & Dunlop from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $130.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $105.00 price target on shares of Walker & Dunlop in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target 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.