Northwest Natural Holding (NYSE:NWN) Increases Dividend to $0.49 Per Share

Northwest Natural Holding (NYSE:NWN) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, October 10th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 31st will be given a dividend of 0.49 per share by the utilities provider on Friday, November 15th. This represents a $1.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.03%. This is a boost from Northwest Natural’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.49.

Northwest Natural has increased its dividend payment by an average of 0.5% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 69 years. Northwest Natural has a payout ratio of 68.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Northwest Natural to earn $2.93 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.95 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 66.6%.

Northwest Natural Price Performance

NWN opened at $38.98 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $39.46 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $38.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.97. Northwest Natural has a 52 week low of $34.82 and a 52 week high of $41.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.51 billion, a PE ratio of 17.88 and a beta of 0.57.

Northwest Natural (NYSE:NWN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The utilities provider reported ($0.07) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.13) by $0.06. Northwest Natural had a net margin of 7.18% and a return on equity of 6.31%. The company had revenue of $211.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $231.99 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.03 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Northwest Natural will post 2.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Northwest Natural from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Janney Montgomery Scott raised shares of Northwest Natural from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $36.00 to $43.00 in a research report on Monday, August 5th.

Northwest Natural Company Profile

Northwest Natural Holding Company, through its subsidiary, Northwest Natural Gas Company, provides regulated natural gas distribution services to residential, commercial, and industrial customers in the United States. The company operates a mist gas storage facility contracted to other utilities, third-party marketers, and electric generators; offers natural gas asset management services; and operates an appliance retail center.