Southwest Gas Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SWX) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.62

Southwest Gas Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SWX) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, November 20th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of 0.62 per share by the utilities provider on Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.25%.

Southwest Gas has increased its dividend by an average of 3.2% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 17 years. Southwest Gas has a dividend payout ratio of 68.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Southwest Gas to earn $3.78 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.48 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 65.6%.

Southwest Gas Trading Down 3.6 %

SWX opened at $76.30 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.85. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $74.28 and its 200-day moving average price is $73.66. Southwest Gas has a one year low of $57.55 and a one year high of $79.20. The stock has a market cap of $5.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.77, a P/E/G ratio of 4.21 and a beta of 0.38.

Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.02. Southwest Gas had a net margin of 3.44% and a return on equity of 5.99%. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.12 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.10 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Southwest Gas will post 3.13 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southwest Gas

In other news, major shareholder Carl C. Icahn sold 1,390,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.74, for a total transaction of $106,668,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 9,632,604 shares in the company, valued at approximately $739,206,030.96. The trade was a 12.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Robert J. Stefani sold 767 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.14, for a total value of $56,098.38. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 43,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,177,055.32. The trade was a 1.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.39% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SWX has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Southwest Gas from $74.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Southwest Gas from $78.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 15th.

About Southwest Gas

Southwest Gas Holdings, Inc, through its subsidiaries, distributes and transports natural gas in Arizona, Nevada, and California. The company operates through Natural Gas Distribution, Utility Infrastructure Services, and Pipeline and Storage segments. It also provides trenching, installation, and replacement of underground pipes, as well as maintenance services for energy distribution systems.