Essendant Inc fka ESND

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NEWS.... 6 hours ago:

Essendant Inc. (NASDAQ:ESND) issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.83 by $0.28. The firm earned $1.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.36 billion. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.82 EPS. Essendant updated its FY16 guidance to $2.15-2.30 EPS.

Essendant (NASDAQ:ESND) opened at 20.61 on Friday. Essendant has a 52-week low of $19.79 and a 52-week high of $37.24. The stock’s market cap is $765.72 million. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $30.92 and a 200 day moving average price of $30.47.

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 15th will be given a $0.14 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 13th. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.72%.




A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Zacks Investment Research lowered Essendant from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, April 25th. KeyCorp upgraded Essendant from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $40.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, April 1st.

In other Essendant news, COO Timothy P. Connolly sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.62, for a total value of $158,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 43,207 shares in the company, valued at $1,366,205.34. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Essendant Inc, formerly United Stationers Inc, is a wholesale distributor of workplace essentials. The Company stocks an assortment of over 160,000 products in categories, including technology products, traditional office products, office furniture, janitorial and breakroom supplies, industrial supplies, and automotive aftermarket tools and equipment