Veteran pest control specialist Rollins (ROL 1.42%) was a popular company on the stock exchange on the second-to-last trading day of the week. The company's share price popped 4% higher on the back of better-than-expected quarterly results.
Rollins' third-quarter revenue and earnings exceeded analyst projections
Just after market close on Wednesday, Rollins unveiled its third-quarter figures. These showed that the company's revenue came in at $840 million for a rather meaty year-over-year increase of over 15%. A chunk of this was due to a recent acquisition, namely the April purchase of peer business Fox Pest Control. Even by stripping these out, though, the company's top line would have expanded by more than 8%.
Non-GAAP (adjusted) net income saw an even higher increase, rising 24% to land at more than $135.5 million. On a per-share basis, the latter figure shook out to $0.28.
Both line items were higher than the average analyst estimates. Prognosticators following Rollins stock were collectively modeling just over $827 million for revenue and $0.25 per share for adjusted net income.
In the earnings release, Rollins quoted its CEO Jerry Gahlhoff as saying that the company's "organic growth remains healthy while we continue to be active on the acquisition front. The demand for our services is solid and our pipeline for acquisitions is robust."
Dividend raise announced
Rollins also indicated that it intends to keep rolling with its capital allocation program in the form of share repurchases and dividend increases. On Tuesday, the company announced the latest in a series of dividend raises, hiking its quarterly common stock payout by 15% to $0.15 per share.
