New Jersey Resources Co. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.45 (NYSE:NJR)

New Jersey Resources Co. (NYSE:NJR) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 23rd,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be given a dividend of 0.45 per share by the utilities provider on Tuesday, April 1st. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.85%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 11th.

New Jersey Resources has increased its dividend by an average of 7.8% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 29 years. New Jersey Resources has a payout ratio of 57.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect New Jersey Resources to earn $3.12 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 57.7%.

New Jersey Resources Price Performance

NJR stock opened at $46.74 on Friday. New Jersey Resources has a 1 year low of $39.44 and a 1 year high of $51.94. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $47.87 and a 200 day moving average of $46.68. The company has a market cap of $4.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.01 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.31, a current ratio of 0.62 and a quick ratio of 0.36.

New Jersey Resources (NYSE:NJR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 25th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89. The firm had revenue of $395.78 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $406.97 million. New Jersey Resources had a net margin of 16.13% and a return on equity of 13.54%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.30 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that New Jersey Resources will post 3.1 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other New Jersey Resources news, COO Patrick J. Migliaccio sold 4,983 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.00, for a total transaction of $229,218.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 37,124 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,707,704. This represents a 11.83 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.72% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on NJR shares. StockNews.com lowered shares of New Jersey Resources from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of New Jersey Resources from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $52.00 to $54.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of New Jersey Resources from $51.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, Guggenheim boosted their price target on shares of New Jersey Resources from $46.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, New Jersey Resources presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $51.00.

New Jersey Resources Company Profile

New Jersey Resources Corporation, an energy services holding company, distributes natural gas. The company operates through four segments: Natural Gas Distribution, Clean Energy Ventures, Energy Services, and Storage and Transportation. The Natural Gas Distribution segment offers regulated natural gas utility services to approximately 576,000 customers in Burlington, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, and Sussex counties in New Jersey; provides capacity and storage management services; and participates in the off-system sales and capacity release markets.