Bunzl plc (LON:BNZL) Receives GBX 3,375 Average PT from Analysts

Bunzl plc (LON:BNZL) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the six brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have assigned a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is GBX 3,375 ($43.60).

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on BNZL. Jefferies Financial Group restated an “underperform” rating and issued a GBX 2,800 ($36.18) price objective on shares of Bunzl in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Citigroup raised shares of Bunzl to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Bunzl from GBX 3,980 ($51.42) to GBX 4,150 ($53.62) and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Shore Capital reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Bunzl in a research report on Monday.

Bunzl Price Performance

LON BNZL opened at GBX 2,966 ($38.32) on Friday. The firm has a market cap of £9.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.40 and a beta of 0.45. The stock’s 50-day moving average is GBX 3,231.54 and its two-hundred day moving average is GBX 3,389.93. Bunzl has a fifty-two week low of GBX 2,884 ($37.26) and a fifty-two week high of GBX 3,732 ($48.22). The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 123.00, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 0.73.

Bunzl (LON:BNZL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, March 3rd. The company reported GBX 194.30 ($2.51) earnings per share for the quarter. Bunzl had a return on equity of 16.82% and a net margin of 4.20%. On average, analysts anticipate that Bunzl will post 213.3413462 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bunzl Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 22nd will be issued a GBX 53.80 ($0.70) dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 22nd. This is an increase from Bunzl’s previous dividend of $20.10. This represents a yield of 1.8%. Bunzl’s dividend payout ratio is 48.39%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Frank van Zanten acquired 4,000 shares of Bunzl stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was bought at an average price of GBX 3,037 ($39.24) per share, for a total transaction of £121,480 ($156,950.90). Company insiders own 0.84% of the company’s stock.

Bunzl Company Profile

Bunzl plc operates as a distribution and services company in the North America, Continental Europe, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and internationally. The company offers food packaging, films, labels, cleaning and hygiene supplies, and personal protection equipment to grocery stores, supermarkets, and convenience stores.