Transportation Company Pays 13 Years of Rising Dividends, Yields 2.2%

A transportation and supply chain service provider paid 13 consecutive years of rising dividends and currently yields 2.2%.

Along with the long record of rising dividends, the company’s 2.2% current yield exceeds the average yields of its sector and segment peers by double-digit percentages. In addition to the rising dividends, the company enhanced its share price more than 30% over the last 12 months and almost all that growth occurred in the past 150 days.

The company will pay its next dividend on December 5, 2017, to all its shareholders on record as of the November 17, 2017, ex-dividend date.

Ryder System, Inc (NYSE:R)

Founded in 1933 and headquartered in Miami, Ryder System, Inc. provides transportation and supply chain management solutions to small businesses and large enterprises worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Fleet Management Solutions, Dedicated Transportation Solutions and Supply Chain Solutions.

Ryder offers fleet management solutions, including vehicles, as well as maintenance services, supplies, related equipment for operation of the vehicles, commercial vehicle rental services and contract maintenance services for trucks, tractors and trailers. The company also provides diesel fuel accessing services, offers other fuel services, such as fuel planning, fuel tax reporting, centralized billing, fuel cards and fuel monitoring services. Additionally, the company sells its used vehicles through 59 retail sales centers and its Usedtrucks.Ryder.com website.

Ryder System also offers dedicated services comprising equipment, maintenance and administrative services of a full-service lease with drivers, routing, scheduling, fleet sizing, safety, regulatory compliance, risk management, technology and communication systems support. Furthermore, the company provides distribution management services, such as managing the flow of goods from the receiving to the shipping function, coordinating warehousing and transportation for material flows, handling import and export for international shipments, coordinating just-in-time replenishment of component parts to manufacturing clients, providing shipments to customer distribution centers and final customer delivery points, as well as other services. Additionally, the company provides transport management services, such as shipment optimization, load scheduling and delivery confirmation services through a series of technological and web-based solutions.

The company’s current $0.46 quarterly dividend yields 2.2% and is equivalent to a $1.84 annual payout. This current annualized yield bests Ryder’s own 2.1% five-year average yield by 4.5%. The company’s current yield also fares well when compared to Ryder’s industry peers. Ryder’s 2.2% yield is 14.3% higher than the simple average of the Services sector and more than 45% above the average yield of Ryder’s peers in the Rental & Leasing Services segment.

The company started paying dividends in 1975 and its current rising dividends streak extends back to 2005. After almost a decade of flat $0.60 annual distributions, the company embarked on its current 13-year long stretch of paying rising dividends. Through that stretch, the annual dividend payout grew at an average rate of 9% per year and more than tripled the total annual dividend distribution in 13 years.

The company’s share price jumped 35% from its 52-week of $62.56 on October 17, 2016, to $84.69 on December 8, 2016. After reaching what was then a new 52-week high in December 2016, the share price relinquished all those gains and fell to $63.04 by May 18, 2017, which was less than 1% above the 52-week low from October 2016.

However, since bottoming out in May 2017, the share price regained all its value and rose further to surpass the December 2016 peak price and reach its new 52-week high of $84.89 on October 2, 2017. After a 1.2% pullback from the October 2017 peak, the share price closed on October 12, 2017, at $83.86, which represents a 32% asset appreciation over the last 12 months.

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