Unitil Co. (NYSE:UTL) Declares Dividend Increase – $0.45 Per Share

Unitil Co. (NYSE:UTL) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 29th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 13th will be given a dividend of 0.45 per share by the utilities provider on Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.35%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 13th. This is a boost from Unitil’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43.

Unitil has increased its dividend payment by an average of 3.8% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 11 years. Unitil has a payout ratio of 51.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research 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 Stock Up 3.2 %

Unitil stock opened at $53.68 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $55.31 and a 200 day simple moving average of $57.79. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. Unitil has a 1-year low of $45.26 and a 1-year high of $63.52. The company has a market cap of $869.08 million, a P/E ratio of 18.32 and a beta of 0.63.

Unitil (NYSE:UTL) last released its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The utilities provider reported $0.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.01 by $0.01. Unitil had a return on equity of 9.43% and a net margin of 9.46%. The business had revenue of $92.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $116.00 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.09 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Unitil will post 2.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Unitil

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.