Chesapeake Utilities Co. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.64 (NYSE:CPK)

Chesapeake Utilities Co. (NYSE:CPK) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 26th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.64 per share by the utilities provider on Monday, April 7th. This represents a $2.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.03%.

Chesapeake Utilities has raised its dividend by an average of 10.1% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 21 consecutive years. Chesapeake Utilities has a payout ratio of 37.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Chesapeake Utilities to earn $6.25 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.56 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 41.0%.

Chesapeake Utilities Price Performance

Shares of Chesapeake Utilities stock opened at $126.34 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $121.93 and a 200-day simple moving average of $122.22. The company has a current ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87. Chesapeake Utilities has a 1-year low of $98.32 and a 1-year high of $134.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.63 and a beta of 0.65.

Chesapeake Utilities (NYSE:CPK) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $1.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by ($0.04). Chesapeake Utilities had a return on equity of 9.08% and a net margin of 14.16%. The company had revenue of $215.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $237.84 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.64 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Chesapeake Utilities will post 5.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CPK. Guggenheim boosted their target price on shares of Chesapeake Utilities from $118.00 to $129.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. StockNews.com raised shares of Chesapeake Utilities from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $123.00.

About Chesapeake Utilities

Chesapeake Utilities Corporation operates as an energy delivery company. The company operates through two segments, Regulated Energy and Unregulated Energy. The Regulated Energy segment natural gas distribution operations in central and southern Delaware, Maryland's eastern shore, and Florida; regulated natural gas transmission in the Delmarva Peninsula, Ohio, and Florida; and regulated electric distribution in northeast and northwest Florida.