The Greenbrier Companies, Inc. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.30 (NYSE:GBX)

The Greenbrier Companies, Inc. (NYSE:GBX) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 8th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 29th will be given a dividend of 0.30 per share by the transportation company on Wednesday, February 19th. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.91%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 29th.

Greenbrier Companies has raised its dividend by an average of 3.6% per year over the last three years. Greenbrier Companies has a dividend payout ratio of 22.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Greenbrier Companies to earn $5.55 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 21.6%.

Greenbrier Companies Stock Up 3.8 %

Shares of GBX traded up $2.28 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $62.72. The stock had a trading volume of 633,621 shares, compared to its average volume of 429,642. The company has a market capitalization of $1.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.62, a P/E/G ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.58, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91. Greenbrier Companies has a 12 month low of $41.40 and a 12 month high of $69.12. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $64.59 and a 200 day simple moving average of $54.57.

Greenbrier Companies (NYSE:GBX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The transportation company reported $1.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.16 by $0.56. Greenbrier Companies had a return on equity of 10.86% and a net margin of 4.52%. The firm had revenue of $875.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $849.51 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.96 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 8.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Greenbrier Companies will post 5.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Ricardo Galvan sold 1,976 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.00, for a total transaction of $114,608.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 33,776 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,959,008. The trade was a 5.53 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO William J. Krueger sold 2,000 shares of Greenbrier Companies stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.78, for a total transaction of $117,560.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 48,714 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,863,408.92. This trade represents a 3.94 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 12,703 shares of company stock valued at $790,338 over the last ninety days. 1.78% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on GBX shares. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on shares of Greenbrier Companies from $63.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Bank of America increased their price objective on Greenbrier Companies from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.00.

About Greenbrier Companies

The Greenbrier Companies, Inc designs, manufactures, and markets railroad freight car equipment in North America, Europe, and South America. It operates through three segments: Manufacturing; Maintenance Services; and Leasing & Management Services. The Manufacturing segment offers covered hopper cars, gondolas, open top hoppers, boxcars, center partition cars, tank cars, sustainable conversions, double-stack railcars, auto-max ii, multi-max, and multi-max plus products, intermodal cars, automobile transport, coil steel and metals, flat cars, sliding wall cars, pressurized tank cars, and non-pressurized tank cars.