Unitil Co. (NYSE:UTL) Raises Dividend to $0.45 Per Share

Unitil Co. (NYSE:UTL - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 29th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 13th will be paid a dividend of 0.45 per share by the utilities provider on Friday, February 28th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.46%. This is a boost from Unitil's previous quarterly dividend of $0.43.

Unitil has raised its dividend payment by an average of 3.8% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 11 consecutive years. Unitil has a dividend payout ratio of 51.7% 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 Performance

UTL traded down $0.58 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $52.07. The stock had a trading volume of 43,866 shares, compared to its average volume of 55,487. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The firm has a market cap of $843.03 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.77 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $55.59 and a 200-day moving average price of $57.86. Unitil has a one year low of $45.26 and a one year high of $63.52.

Unitil (NYSE:UTL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The utilities provider reported $0.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.01 by $0.01. Unitil had a net margin of 9.46% and a return on equity of 9.43%. The business had revenue of $92.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $116.00 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.09 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Unitil will post 2.91 EPS for the current year.

Unitil Company Profile

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.

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