Northwest Natural Holding (NYSE:NWN) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.49

Northwest Natural Holding (NYSE:NWN) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 14th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a dividend of 0.49 per share by the utilities provider on Friday, February 14th. This represents a $1.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st.

Northwest Natural has raised 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 30 years. Northwest Natural has a dividend payout ratio of 64.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Northwest Natural to earn $2.91 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.96 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 67.4%.

Northwest Natural Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of NWN stock opened at $40.36 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $1.62 billion, a PE ratio of 19.04 and a beta of 0.62. Northwest Natural has a 1 year low of $34.82 and a 1 year high of $44.25. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $40.82 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $40.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 0.53.

Northwest Natural (NYSE:NWN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The utilities provider reported ($0.71) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.79) by $0.08. Northwest Natural had a return on equity of 5.89% and a net margin of 6.90%. The company had revenue of $136.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $132.47 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.65) EPS. Northwest Natural’s quarterly revenue was down 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Northwest Natural will post 2.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Northwest Natural

In other Northwest Natural news, CEO David Hugo Anderson sold 7,500 shares of Northwest Natural stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.33, for a total value of $309,975.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 137,742 shares in the company, valued at $5,692,876.86. The trade was a 5.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.84% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Northwest Natural from $45.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 14th.

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.