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

Northwest Natural Holding (NYSE:NWN) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 14th,RTT News reports. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.98%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st.

Northwest Natural has raised its dividend by an average of 0.5% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 70 consecutive years. Northwest Natural has a dividend payout ratio of 64.9% meaning 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 0.3 %

NWN opened at $39.34 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.56 and a beta of 0.62. Northwest Natural has a one year low of $34.82 and a one year high of $44.25. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $40.99 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $39.86. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The utilities provider reported ($0.71) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.79) by $0.08. The company had revenue of $136.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $132.47 million. Northwest Natural had a return on equity of 5.89% and a net margin of 6.90%. The firm’s revenue was down 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.65) earnings per share. Analysts predict that Northwest Natural will post 2.33 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Northwest Natural from $45.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 14th.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO David Hugo Anderson sold 7,500 shares of Northwest Natural stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.78, for a total transaction of $298,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 144,298 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,740,174.44. This trade represents a 4.94 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.84% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Northwest Natural

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.