New Jersey Resources Co. (NYSE:NJR) to Issue Dividend Increase – $0.45 Per Share

New Jersey Resources Co. (NYSE:NJR) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, September 11th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, September 23rd will be given a dividend of 0.45 per share by the utilities provider on Tuesday, October 1st. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 23rd. This is an increase from New Jersey Resources’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42.

New Jersey Resources has increased its dividend payment by an average of 7.9% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 29 consecutive years. New Jersey Resources has a payout ratio of 62.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect New Jersey Resources to earn $2.89 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 62.3%.

New Jersey Resources Trading Down 0.1 %

NYSE NJR opened at $47.64 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.71 billion, a PE ratio of 18.83 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a fifty day moving average of $46.02 and a 200 day moving average of $44.00. New Jersey Resources has a 1 year low of $38.92 and a 1 year high of $48.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 0.60 and a quick ratio of 0.41.

New Jersey Resources (NYSE:NJR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported ($0.09) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.02) by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $275.64 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $283.56 million. New Jersey Resources had a return on equity of 11.06% and a net margin of 13.61%. The company’s revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.10 EPS. Research analysts forecast that New Jersey Resources will post 2.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of New Jersey Resources from $48.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of New Jersey Resources from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of New Jersey Resources from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of New Jersey Resources to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 10th.

Insider Activity at New Jersey Resources

In related news, CEO Stephen D. Westhoven sold 3,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.00, for a total transaction of $153,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 195,305 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,788,725. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Stephen D. Westhoven sold 3,400 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.00, for a total value of $153,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 195,305 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,788,725. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Stephen D. Westhoven sold 26,600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.06, for a total transaction of $1,198,596.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 168,705 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,601,847.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.75% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About New Jersey Resources

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.