Cheniere Energy, Inc. (NYSE:LNG) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.50

Cheniere Energy, Inc. (NYSE:LNG) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 28th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th will be paid a dividend of 0.50 per share by the energy company on Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.88%.

Cheniere Energy has a payout ratio of 105.9% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities analysts expect Cheniere Energy to earn $11.54 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $4.14 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 35.9%.

Cheniere Energy Trading Up 0.9 %

LNG traded up $1.97 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $226.43. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,410,530 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,438,795. Cheniere Energy has a 52-week low of $152.31 and a 52-week high of $257.65. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $222.75 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $198.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.41. The firm has a market cap of $50.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.46 and a beta of 0.99.

Cheniere Energy (NYSE:LNG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The energy company reported $3.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.87 by $2.06. Cheniere Energy had a return on equity of 41.44% and a net margin of 22.70%. The business had revenue of $3.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.76 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.37 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 9.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Cheniere Energy will post 12.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LNG has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Cheniere Energy in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $215.00 price target for the company. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Cheniere Energy from $204.00 to $237.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on Cheniere Energy from $242.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Cheniere Energy from $201.00 to $217.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Cheniere Energy from $232.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $232.36.

Cheniere Energy Company Profile

Cheniere Energy, Inc, an energy infrastructure company, primarily engages in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) related businesses in the United States. It owns and operates the Sabine Pass LNG terminal in Cameron Parish, Louisiana; and the Corpus Christi LNG terminal near Corpus Christi, Texas. The company also owns Creole Trail pipeline, a 94-mile natural gas supply pipeline that interconnects the Sabine Pass LNG Terminal with several interstate and intrastate pipelines; and operates Corpus Christi pipeline, a 21.5-mile natural gas supply pipeline that interconnects the Corpus Christi LNG terminal with various interstate and intrastate natural gas pipelines.