Middlesex Water (NASDAQ:MSEX) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.34

Middlesex Water (NASDAQ:MSEX) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 28th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of 0.34 per share by the utilities provider on Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.63%.

Middlesex Water has increased its dividend payment by an average of 5.9% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 21 consecutive years. Middlesex Water has a dividend payout ratio of 53.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Middlesex Water to earn $2.42 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.36 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 56.2%.

Middlesex Water Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of MSEX opened at $51.79 on Wednesday. Middlesex Water has a fifty-two week low of $45.42 and a fifty-two week high of $70.73. The company has a market capitalization of $924.45 million, a PE ratio of 22.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 0.85. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $56.12 and a two-hundred day moving average of $61.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a current ratio of 0.65.

Middlesex Water (NASDAQ:MSEX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.67 by $0.13. Middlesex Water had a return on equity of 9.58% and a net margin of 22.53%. The firm had revenue of $55.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $50.00 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.56 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Middlesex Water will post 2.34 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Middlesex Water from $58.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Bank of America started coverage on Middlesex Water in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $56.00 target price on the stock.

Middlesex Water Company Profile

Middlesex Water Company owns and operates regulated water utility and wastewater systems. It operates in Regulated and Non-Regulated segments. The Regulated segment collects, treats, and distributes water on a retail and wholesale basis to residential, commercial, industrial, and fire protection customers, as well as provides regulated wastewater systems in New Jersey and Delaware.