J.M. Smucker Reports Insider Sells and an Increasing Dividend

Author's Avatar
Jul 23, 2014
Article's Main Image

The veteran food manufacturing J.M. Smucker (SJM, Financial) announced last Wednesday that the family run, 117-year old company would be growing its dividend for the thirtieth consecutive year. Along with the consistent increases, Smucker has offered a dividend since 1959 when the company went public.

J.M. Smucker announced that their Board of Directors approved an increase in its quarterly dividend from $0.58 to $0.64 per common share. This increase represents a 10% growth in dividend from the past quarter. According to the company’s press release, they will pay this dividend on Tuesday, Sept., 2, 2014, to shareholders of the record at the close of business on Friday, August 15, 2014.

"This action, which represents our thirteenth consecutive year of dividend growth, reflects the confidence we have in the long-term growth of our business. We have paid a dividend each year since becoming a publicly traded company in 1959 and this remains an important component of creating value for our shareholders," reported the company’s CEO Richard Smucker.

As shown on the company’s dividend page, Smucker’s currently holds a 2.20% dividend yield, a 41% dividend payout ratio, a 3.96% yield on cost (5-year) and a 4.30% share buyback rate. The company’s dividend per share history:

03May20171414051493838845.png

J.M. Smucker’s dividend growth rate is as follows:

  • 10-year: 9.80%
  • 5-year: 12.50%
  • 3-year: 11.30
  • 1-year: 10.80%

This most recent dividend means that Smucker’s shareholders will gain an additional $24.5 million this year. During the fiscal year 2014, which ended April 30, the company had returned $732.9 million in cash through the distribution in dividends as well as in the repurchase of approximately 5-% of the company’s shares outstanding.

J.M. Smucker manufactures and markets food products and it has three reportable segments: U.S. Retail Coffee, U.S. Retail Consumer Foods, and International, Foodservice, and Natural Foods. Its main products are coffee, peanut butter, fruit spreads, shortening and oils, juices and beverages, toppings, syrups, and condiments.

J.M. Smucker also maintains hundreds of famous names as a part of its family of brands including Smucker’s, Folger’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, JIF, Crisco, Pillsbury, Eagle Brand, Hungry Jack, White Lily and Martha White.

J.M. Smucker’s historical revenue and net income:

03May20171414061493838846.png

The analysis on JM Smucker reports that the company’s Piotroski F-Score is high, its operating margin is expanding and its dividend yield is nearing a 1-year high. The analysis also notes that the company’s revenue per share growth has slowed down over the past year, its price is near a 10-year high, and over the past three years Smucker’s has issued $897 million of debt.

Check out the company’s financial strength rank and profitability rank in comparison to its competitors below:

03May20171414061493838846.jpg

The Peter Lynch Chart suggests that the company is currently overvalued:

03May20171414061493838846.png

There are currently eight gurus that hold a position in SJM with John Rogers (Trades, Portfolio) holding the largest stake in the company. Check out Rogers’ and other gurus’ holding histories here.

The company’s fiscal 2014 full year results (as reported in June 2014) highlighted:

  • Record earnings for fiscal 2014
  • Net sales decreased 5% to $5.61 billion
  • Net income increased 4% to $565.2 million
  • Net income per share increased 8% from $5.00 per share to $5.42 per share.

Along with the company’s recent dividend increase, Smucker’s also saw record high insider sells coming in June and July of this year. Together there have been ten different insiders selling a total of 33,879 shares of the company’s stock. They sold these shares in the price range of $104.74 to $107.35 per share, and since then the price per share has dropped approximately -1.21%.

A look at the company’s history of insider buys and sells:

03May20171414071493838847.png

J.M. Smucker has a market cap of $10.67 billion. Its shares are currently trading at around $104.81 with a P/E ratio of 19.40, a P/S ratio of 1.90 and a P/B ratio of 2.20. The company had an annual average earnings growth of 10.20% over the past ten years.

GuruFocus rated JM Smucker the business predictability rank of 4.5-star.

Check out more about J.M. Smucker here. Also see more high yield dividend stocks in gurus’ portfolios here!

Try a 7-day premium membership trial here.