Unitil Co. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.43 (NYSE:UTL)

Unitil Co. (NYSE:UTL) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, October 30th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.425 per share by the utilities provider on Friday, November 29th. This represents a $1.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 14th.

Unitil has raised its dividend by an average of 2.6% annually over the last three years. Unitil has a payout ratio of 54.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Unitil to earn $3.08 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.70 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 55.2%.

Unitil Price Performance

Shares of UTL stock opened at $57.89 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 0.58 and a quick ratio of 0.53. The company has a market capitalization of $936.08 million, a P/E ratio of 19.17 and a beta of 0.60. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $59.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $55.77. Unitil has a one year low of $45.13 and a one year high of $63.52.

Unitil (NYSE:UTL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.04. Unitil had a net margin of 9.53% and a return on equity of 9.74%. The firm had revenue of $95.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.00 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.25 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Unitil will post 2.92 EPS for the current year.

Unitil Company Profile

Unitil Corporation, a public utility holding company, engages in the distribution of electricity and natural gas. It operates through two segments, Utility Electric Operations, Utility Gas Operations. The company distributes electricity in the southeastern seacoast and state capital regions of New Hampshire, and the greater Fitchburg area of north central Massachusetts; and distributes natural gas in southeastern New Hampshire and portions of southern and central Maine, including the city of Portland and the Lewiston-Auburn area, as well as electricity and natural gas in the greater Fitchburg area of north central Massachusetts.