Emera (TSE:EMA) Reaches New 1-Year High – Time to Buy?

Emera Incorporated (TSE:EMA) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Friday . The company traded as high as C$59.96 and last traded at C$59.92, with a volume of 394577 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at C$59.23.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Emera from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from C$51.00 to C$56.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. CIBC upped their price objective on shares of Emera from C$58.00 to C$59.00 in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Emera from C$51.00 to C$56.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. UBS Group increased their target price on Emera from C$54.00 to C$59.00 in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Emera from C$60.00 to C$62.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Emera currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of C$58.18.

Emera Stock Up 1.7 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 150.23, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 0.23. The company has a market capitalization of C$17.66 billion, a PE ratio of 23.35, a P/E/G ratio of 6.20 and a beta of 0.35. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is C$56.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$54.19.

Emera Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a dividend of $0.725 per share. This represents a $2.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 31st. Emera’s dividend payout ratio is presently 112.40%.

About Emera

Emera Incorporated, through its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity to various customers. The company operates through Florida Electric Utility, Canadian Electric Utilities, Other Electric Utilities, Gas Utilities and Infrastructure, and Other segments.