Citigroup Inc. Acquires 619 Shares of UniFirst Co. (NYSE:UNF)

Citigroup Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of UniFirst Co. (NYSE:UNF – Get Rating) by 6.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 10,510 shares of the textile maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 619 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc.’s holdings in UniFirst were worth $2,028,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. California Public Employees Retirement System raised its holdings in UniFirst by 7.1% in the fourth quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 38,721 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $7,473,000 after purchasing an additional 2,569 shares in the last quarter. PDT Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of UniFirst in the third quarter worth $221,000. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of UniFirst by 45.0% in the third quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 28,196 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $4,744,000 after acquiring an additional 8,753 shares during the last quarter. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA purchased a new stake in shares of UniFirst in the fourth quarter worth $200,000. Finally, Fiducient Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of UniFirst in the fourth quarter worth $333,000. Institutional investors own 77.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on UNF. StockNews.com began coverage on UniFirst in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on UniFirst from $225.00 to $203.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 30th. Finally, TheStreet cut UniFirst from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 5th.

UniFirst Price Performance

UniFirst stock opened at $170.00 on Friday. UniFirst Co. has a one year low of $154.72 and a one year high of $205.59. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.18 billion, a PE ratio of 31.02 and a beta of 0.90. The business’s fifty day moving average is $170.71 and its 200 day moving average is $185.86.

UniFirst (NYSE:UNF – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 29th. The textile maker reported $0.95 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.35 by ($0.40). The business had revenue of $542.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $531.68 million. UniFirst had a net margin of 4.88% and a return on equity of 6.56%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.24 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that UniFirst Co. will post 7.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

UniFirst Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 8th will be given a $0.31 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 7th. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.73%. UniFirst’s payout ratio is 22.63%.

About UniFirst

(Get Rating)

UniFirst Corp. engages in the provision of workplace uniforms and protective work wear clothing. It operates through following segments: the United States and Canadian Rental and Cleaning, Manufacturing (MFG), Specialty Garments, First Aid, and Corporate. The U.S. and Canadian Rental and Cleaning segment purchases, rents, cleans, delivers, and sells uniforms, protective clothing, and non-garment items.