ONE Gas, Inc. (NYSE:OGS) Increases Dividend to $0.67 Per Share

ONE Gas, Inc. (NYSE:OGS) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 21st,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be given a dividend of 0.67 per share by the utilities provider on Friday, March 7th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.71%. This is an increase from ONE Gas’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66.

ONE Gas has increased its dividend payment by an average of 4.4% per year over the last three years. ONE Gas has a payout ratio of 58.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect ONE Gas to earn $4.26 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.64 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 62.0%.

ONE Gas Stock Performance

ONE Gas stock traded down $0.45 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $72.30. 393,717 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 395,626. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.50 and a quick ratio of 0.37. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $72.18 and its 200-day moving average price is $70.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.83, a P/E/G ratio of 5.91 and a beta of 0.71. ONE Gas has a 1 year low of $57.74 and a 1 year high of $78.89.

ONE Gas (NYSE:OGS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The utilities provider reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.39 by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $340.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $287.48 million. ONE Gas had a net margin of 10.52% and a return on equity of 7.71%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.45 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that ONE Gas will post 3.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

OGS has been the subject of several analyst reports. StockNews.com cut ONE Gas from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on ONE Gas from $82.00 to $81.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on ONE Gas from $73.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH cut ONE Gas from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $75.50 target price for the company. in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on ONE Gas in a report on Monday, December 9th. They set a “hold” rating and a $79.00 target price for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $72.69.

About ONE Gas

ONE Gas, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a regulated natural gas distribution company in the United States. The company provides natural gas distribution services to approximately 2.3 million customers in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas. It serves residential, commercial, and transportation customers.