Kontoor Brands recently announced its first-quarter dividend and a new hemp partnership
Kontoor Brands, Inc. (NYSE:KTB) is an American lifestyle apparel company. They're responsible for fan-favorite clothing brands like Lee, Wrangler, and Rock & Republic. Kontoor Brands also operates the VF Outlet chain of factory outlet stores you've likely spent a Saturday perusing.
On April 27, Kontoor Brands announced an expansion of its collaboration with Dallas-based Panda Biotech, LLC, a company operating in the industrial hemp fiber industry. Kontoor Brands and Panda Biotech’s partnership comes with the goal of accelerating the commercialization of U.S. grown and processed hemp.
Recently Kontoor Brands also announced a quarterly cash dividend of $0.40 per share, which translates to a 2.46% dividend yield. The cash dividend will be payable on June 18 to shareholders of record at the close of business on June 8.
Furthermore, Kontoor Brands is scheduled to report first quarter earnings results on Thursday, May 6. Kontoor Brands has beat earnings expectations on all four of its most recent earnings reports. However, that only yielded two positive post-earnings reactions; a 7.7% bull gap in March, and a 11.2% surge in late October. This time around, the options market is pricing in a larger-than-usual post-earnings move of 9.1% for tomorrow's trading.
On the charts, KTB scored a record high of $67.73 on April 27. The subsequent broad market pullback has so far been met with support at the shares'2 ascending 20-day moving average, a trendline that has alternated between support and resistance for the last 12 months.
From a fundamental point of view, it is nearly unexplainable that Kontoor Brands stock is trading near its all-time highs. Although the company gets a pass for this past year’s poor performance, Kontoor Brands’ top and bottom lines have been on a decline for multiple years. Since fiscal 2017, KTB revenues have decreased 26%, with sales falling 18% in 2020. In addition, the company’s net income is down a massive 74% since 2018 and also down 30% in the past year. The only redeeming fundamentals factor for Kontoor Brands stock is that analysts have its forward price-earnings ratio at 16.10, despite its current price-earnings ratio being at an inflated 55.11.