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

New Jersey Resources Co. (NYSE:NJR) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 7th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be paid a dividend of 0.45 per share by the utilities provider on Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.85%.

New Jersey Resources has raised its dividend by an average of 7.9% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 29 years. New Jersey Resources has a payout ratio of 62.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research 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 0.3 %

Shares of NJR stock traded down $0.15 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $46.79. 172,576 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 487,467. The firm has a market cap of $4.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.64 and a beta of 0.59. New Jersey Resources has a fifty-two week low of $39.44 and a fifty-two week high of $48.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a current ratio of 0.60. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $46.49 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $44.92.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com cut New Jersey Resources from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on New Jersey Resources from $47.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on New Jersey Resources from $48.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Mizuho raised their price objective on New Jersey Resources from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $49.00.

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.