Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ:CALM) Declares $0.72 Quarterly Dividend

Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ:CALM) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 7th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 28th will be paid a dividend of 0.72 per share by the basic materials company on Thursday, February 12th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.7%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 28th.

Cal-Maine Foods has a dividend payout ratio of 168.0% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect Cal-Maine Foods to earn $4.69 per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $5.51 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 117.5%.

Cal-Maine Foods Price Performance

NASDAQ CALM traded down $1.27 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $77.81. The stock had a trading volume of 3,147,936 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,853,526. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $85.30 and its 200 day moving average is $96.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.26. Cal-Maine Foods has a twelve month low of $74.74 and a twelve month high of $126.40.

Cal-Maine Foods (NASDAQ:CALM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 7th. The basic materials company reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.17 by ($0.04). Cal-Maine Foods had a return on equity of 52.31% and a net margin of 28.86%.The business had revenue of $769.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $828.46 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $4.47 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 19.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Cal-Maine Foods will post 15.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Key Stories Impacting Cal-Maine Foods

Here are the key news stories impacting Cal-Maine Foods this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Prepared foods growth and capacity investment — Prepared foods sales jumped materially (586% year?over?year) and management announced a $36M plan to centralize and expand prepared foods capacity (over 30% capacity increase targeted), supporting a higher?margin growth avenue for the company. Quiver Quant / Press Release
• Positive Sentiment: Specialty mix improvement and acquisition — Specialty eggs now represent a much larger share of shell sales (44% in the quarter) and the company acquired Clean Egg production assets to expand specialty/free?range capacity, supporting a structural shift toward higher?value products. Quiver Quant / Press Release
• Positive Sentiment: Capital returns remain intact — Cal?Maine repurchased ~846k shares for $74.8M this quarter and declared a cash dividend (~$0.72/share), supporting shareholder returns. Quiver Quant / Press Release
• Neutral Sentiment: Management framing — Management emphasized that the company is deliberately shifting mix toward specialty and prepared foods to build a more durable, predictable earnings base; longer?term thesis remains execution?dependent. Earnings Call Transcript
• Negative Sentiment: Revenue and EPS miss; sharp year?over?year declines — Q2 net sales of $769.5M missed consensus and fell 19.4% y/y; diluted EPS $2.13 slightly missed estimates and is down ~52% y/y; net income and margins contracted significantly. These headline misses are the primary driver of the stock trading lower. 24/7 Wall St. summary
• Negative Sentiment: Commodity price pressure and integration/short?term production issues — Lower shell?egg prices (major driver of sales decline) compressed gross profit; Echo Lake integration and remodeling caused sequential prepared?foods dips, highlighting near?term volatility risk. Fool analysis
• Negative Sentiment: Near?term outlook softer than 2025 — Commentary and previews signaled 2026 won’t match 2025’s results; investors focused on near?term earnings visibility and price sensitivity of the commodity egg business. MarketWatch preview

Cal-Maine Foods Company Profile

Cal-Maine Foods, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, produces, grades, packages, markets, and distributes shell eggs. The company offers specialty shell eggs, such as nutritionally enhanced, cage free, organic, free-range, pasture-raised, and brown eggs under the Egg-Land's Best, Land O' Lakes, Farmhouse Eggs, Sunups, Sunny Meadow, and 4Grain brand names. It sells its products to various customers, including national and regional grocery store chains, club stores, independent supermarkets, foodservice distributors, and egg product consumers primarily in the southwestern, southeastern, mid-western, and mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.