Southwest Gas Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SWX) Plans $0.62 Quarterly Dividend

Southwest Gas Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SWX) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, November 20th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of 0.62 per share by the utilities provider on Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.25%.

Southwest Gas has increased its dividend by an average of 3.2% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 17 years. Southwest Gas has a payout ratio of 68.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Southwest Gas to earn $3.78 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.48 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 65.6%.

Southwest Gas Trading Down 3.6 %

NYSE SWX opened at $76.30 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $5.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.77, a PEG ratio of 4.21 and a beta of 0.38. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $74.28 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $73.66. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. Southwest Gas has a twelve month low of $57.55 and a twelve month high of $79.20.

Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.02. Southwest Gas had a return on equity of 5.99% and a net margin of 3.44%. The firm had revenue of $1.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.12 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.10 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Southwest Gas will post 3.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on SWX shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Southwest Gas from $74.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Southwest Gas from $78.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 15th.

Insider Activity at Southwest Gas

In other Southwest Gas news, CFO Robert J. Stefani sold 767 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.14, for a total transaction of $56,098.38. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 43,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,177,055.32. This represents a 1.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Carl C. Icahn sold 1,390,000 shares of Southwest Gas stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.74, for a total value of $106,668,600.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 9,632,604 shares in the company, valued at $739,206,030.96. This trade represents a 12.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.39% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Southwest Gas

Southwest Gas Holdings, Inc, through its subsidiaries, distributes and transports natural gas in Arizona, Nevada, and California. The company operates through Natural Gas Distribution, Utility Infrastructure Services, and Pipeline and Storage segments. It also provides trenching, installation, and replacement of underground pipes, as well as maintenance services for energy distribution systems.