Emera Incorporated (TSE:EMA) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Emera Incorporated (TSE:EMA) has been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the ten brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have assigned a hold recommendation and five have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$51.80.

A number of analysts recently commented on EMA shares. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Emera from C$54.00 to C$57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. National Bankshares upped their price target on Emera from C$49.00 to C$54.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Bank of America set a C$55.00 price objective on Emera and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on Emera from C$60.00 to C$57.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Emera from C$45.00 to C$46.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 25th.

Emera Stock Performance

Shares of EMA stock opened at C$53.29 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 155.62. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of C$50.81 and a 200-day simple moving average of C$48.38. The company has a market cap of C$15.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.34. Emera has a 12-month low of C$43.67 and a 12-month high of C$53.83.

Emera (TSE:EMA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 9th. The company reported C$0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of C$0.56 by C($0.03). The business had revenue of C$1.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of C$1.67 billion. Emera had a return on equity of 6.60% and a net margin of 10.83%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Emera will post 3.1690821 EPS for the current year.

Emera Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.725 per share. This is a boost from Emera’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. This represents a $2.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.44%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 3rd. Emera’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 111.67%.

About Emera

Emera Incorporated, through its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity to various customers. The company operates through Florida Electric Utility, Canadian Electric Utilities, Other Electric Utilities, Gas Utilities and Infrastructure, and Other segments.