2,874 Shares in UniFirst Corporation $UNF Bought by Sanctuary Advisors LLC

Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of UniFirst Corporation (NYSE:UNF) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 2,874 shares of the textile maker’s stock, valued at approximately $760,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Comerica Bank boosted its holdings in UniFirst by 66.7% during the fourth quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 31,163 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $6,011,000 after purchasing an additional 12,465 shares during the last quarter. Tweedy Browne Co LLC acquired a new stake in UniFirst in the 4th quarter valued at $19,687,000. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its stake in UniFirst by 31.9% in the 1st quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 18,267 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $4,596,000 after buying an additional 4,418 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in UniFirst during the 2nd quarter worth about $580,008,000. Finally, TimesSquare Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in UniFirst during the 2nd quarter worth about $17,165,000. 78.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on UNF. UBS Group set a $262.00 price objective on UniFirst in a report on Monday, July 6th. Weiss Ratings lowered UniFirst from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating, According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $246.67.

UniFirst Trading Down 1.2%

NYSE:UNF opened at $282.36 on Friday. UniFirst Corporation has a 1-year low of $147.66 and a 1-year high of $306.67. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $282.97 and a 200 day simple moving average of $265.59. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.11 billion, a PE ratio of 44.54 and a beta of 0.63.

UniFirst (NYSE:UNF) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 1st. The textile maker reported $1.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.93 by ($0.84). UniFirst had a return on equity of 6.44% and a net margin of 4.65%.The firm had revenue of $634.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $627.66 million. The business’s revenue was up 3.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.13 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that UniFirst Corporation will post 7.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

UniFirst Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.365 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $1.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. UniFirst’s payout ratio is currently 23.03%.

UniFirst Profile

UniFirst Corporation (NYSE: UNF) is a leading provider of customized uniform rental and facility service programs in North America and Europe. The company specializes in the rental, laundering and maintenance of workwear, corporate apparel and protective garments for a broad range of industries, including manufacturing, automotive, hospitality, healthcare and food processing. UniFirst also offers a suite of facility service products such as entrance mats, restroom supplies, wipers, mops and hygienic services designed to help customers maintain clean and safe environments.

In addition to its core uniform rental business, UniFirst has expanded its product portfolio to include safety and first-responder gear, flame-resistant clothing, high-visibility apparel and personal protective equipment (PPE).