Sanctuary Advisors LLC Acquires 8,230 Shares of New Jersey Resources Co. (NYSE:NJR)

Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in New Jersey Resources Co. (NYSE:NJR) by 57.5% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 22,532 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 8,230 shares during the quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC’s holdings in New Jersey Resources were worth $1,150,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of NJR. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of New Jersey Resources by 5.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,956,772 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $126,372,000 after purchasing an additional 154,441 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in New Jersey Resources by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,366,381 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $111,714,000 after buying an additional 34,782 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in shares of New Jersey Resources by 3.2% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,284,245 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $54,889,000 after buying an additional 40,094 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of New Jersey Resources by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,227,815 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $57,953,000 after buying an additional 33,772 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of New Jersey Resources by 39.9% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 618,379 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $26,430,000 after acquiring an additional 176,396 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Guggenheim raised their price target on New Jersey Resources from $46.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised New Jersey Resources from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $52.00 to $54.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. StockNews.com raised New Jersey Resources from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of New Jersey Resources from $51.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, Mizuho increased their target price on shares of New Jersey Resources from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, New Jersey Resources has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $51.00.

New Jersey Resources Price Performance

Shares of New Jersey Resources stock opened at $46.51 on Friday. 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 Co. has a one year low of $39.44 and a one year high of $51.94. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $47.88 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $46.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.93 and a beta of 0.63.

New Jersey Resources (NYSE:NJR) last issued its earnings results on Monday, November 25th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.89. The company had revenue of $395.78 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.30 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that New Jersey Resources Co. will post 3.1 EPS for the current year.

New Jersey Resources Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.87%. New Jersey Resources’s dividend payout ratio is currently 61.64%.

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.