Unitil Co. (UTL) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.45 on February 28th

Unitil Co. (NYSE:UTL) 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 3.35%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 13th. This is an increase from Unitil’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43.

Unitil has raised its dividend by an average of 3.8% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 11 years. Unitil has a dividend payout ratio of 51.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Price Performance

Shares of UTL stock opened at $53.68 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. Unitil has a 12-month low of $45.26 and a 12-month high of $63.52. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $55.31 and a 200-day moving average of $57.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $869.08 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.32 and a beta of 0.63.

Unitil (NYSE:UTL) last posted its earnings results 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 return on equity of 9.43% and a net margin of 9.46%. The firm had revenue of $92.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $116.00 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.09 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Unitil will post 2.91 earnings per share for the current 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.