Northwest Natural Holding (NWN) To Go Ex-Dividend on January 31st

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 paid a dividend of 0.49 per share by the utilities provider on Friday, February 14th. This represents a $1.96 dividend on an annualized basis 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% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 30 years. Northwest Natural has a payout ratio of 64.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research 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 Stock Performance

Shares of NWN stock opened at $40.36 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.04 and a beta of 0.62. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $40.82 and a 200 day moving average of $40.14. Northwest Natural has a 52 week low of $34.82 and a 52 week high of $44.25. The company has a quick ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Northwest Natural (NYSE:NWN) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The utilities provider reported ($0.71) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $136.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $132.47 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.65) EPS. The business’s revenue was down 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Northwest Natural will post 2.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective 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.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO David Hugo Anderson sold 7,500 shares of the business’s 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 directly 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.84% of the company’s stock.

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.