Despite profit drop, Sysco raises dividend

Article Excerpt

SYSCO INC. $29 (New York symbol SYY; Conservative Growth Portfolio; Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 585.1 million; Market cap: $17.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.4; Dividend yield: 3.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.sysco.com) distributes food and supplies to over 400,000 North American restaurants. Sysco’s revenue rose 7.4% in its first quarter, which ended October 2, 2010, to $9.8 billion from $9.1 billion a year earlier. That’s mainly due to rising prices for meat, dairy and seafood products, However, earnings per share fell 7.3%, to $0.51 from $0.55, because of higher taxes and employee pension costs. Even so, Sysco raised its quarterly dividend by 4.0%, to $0.26 from $0.25. The new annual rate of $1.04 yields 3.6%. Sysco is a hold. hold…