Enbridge Inc. (NYSE:ENB) Increases Dividend to $0.68 Per Share

Enbridge Inc. (NYSE:ENB) (TSE:ENB) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 24th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be given a dividend of 0.677 per share by the pipeline company on Saturday, June 1st. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 14th. This is a positive change from Enbridge’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66.

Enbridge has increased its dividend by an average of 2.9% annually over the last three years. Enbridge has a dividend payout ratio of 122.2% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect Enbridge to earn $2.24 per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $2.70 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 120.5%.

Enbridge Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of ENB traded down $0.30 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $35.36. The stock had a trading volume of 1,250,875 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,669,786. The firm has a market cap of $75.17 billion, a PE ratio of 16.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.84. Enbridge has a 1 year low of $31.03 and a 1 year high of $40.30. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $35.12 and its 200 day moving average is $34.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.74.

Enbridge (NYSE:ENB) (TSE:ENB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The pipeline company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.50 by ($0.03). Enbridge had a return on equity of 10.23% and a net margin of 13.97%. The business had revenue of $8.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.62 billion. As a group, analysts forecast that Enbridge will post 2.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on ENB. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Enbridge in a report on Tuesday, February 27th. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus began coverage on Enbridge in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $55.20.

About Enbridge

Enbridge Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an energy infrastructure company. The company operates through five segments: Liquids Pipelines, Gas Transmission and Midstream, Gas Distribution and Storage, Renewable Power Generation, and Energy Services. The Liquids Pipelines segment operates pipelines and related terminals to transport various grades of crude oil and other liquid hydrocarbons in Canada and the United States.