Harris (HRS) Scales A New 52-Week High On 8% Dividend Hike

Shares of Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS) , a leading player in the field of technology innovations, reached a new 52-week high of $122.37 during the trading session on Aug 28, before closing a tad lower at $121.33 (up 1.39% from the closing price of Aug 25).

Over the past 52 weeks, shares of Harris have ranged from a low of $88.89 to a high of $122.37. The average volume of shares traded over the last three months is approximately 772.81k. The stock has a market cap of $14.49 billion.

Comparison With Broader Industry

Harris has been performing well of late. Over the last three months, the stock price has moved up 9.8% as against the industry’s decline of 6.0%.

When compared to the market at large, the stock’s performance looks favorable, as the S&P 500 index has rallied 1.0%.

Taking the stable performance of the stock into consideration, we expect Harris to scale higher in the coming quarters.

Positive Earnings Surprise

Harris delivered a four-quarter average earnings surprise of 2.99%. The company’s earnings have surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the previous four quarters.

Catalysts Behind the Upsurge

One of the majorfactor that played a pivotal role in driving the share price of Harris to a new 52-week high is the company’s latest announcement on dividend hike. The move indicates the company’s commitment to create value for shareholders and underlines confidence in business growth.

The company raised quarterly dividend by 8% to 57 cents per share (or $2.28 annually) from 53 cents (or $2.12 annually). Approved by the company’s board of directors, this new payout will be made on Sep 22, 2017, to stockholders of record as on Sep 8. This is the 16th such annual dividend increase by the company.

Meanwhile, William M. Brown, Chairman, President and CEO of the company, anticipates 2018 to be a year of growth and is hopeful about its long-term outlook. The company expects earnings per share (on an adjusted basis) for fiscal 2018 in the band of $5.85 to $6.05. Revenues for the same are projected in the range of $6.02-$6.14 billion.

As investors prefer an income generating stock, a high dividend-yielding firm is much coveted. Investors are always on the lookout for companies with a track record of consistent and incremental dividend payments to put their money on. The dividend rise is likely to further improve the stock.

Moreover, being a leading technology innovator, Harris has been consistently focusing on business innovation in a bid to deliver some of the best technology and products in the industry. Notably, the company had been selected by Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) to upgrade mission system avionics for the F-35 Lightning II as part of the technology.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Harris currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

Some better-ranked stocks in the Computer and Technology sector are InterDigital, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDCC) and Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR) . All the mentioned stocks currently carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

InterDigital has an impressive earnings history, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the last four quarters with an average beat of 15.17%.

Juniper Networks also portrays an impressive earnings history, outpacing the Zacks consensus Estimate in all of the previous four quarters, with average earnings beat of 7.85%.

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