Unitil Corporation (NYSE:UTL) Shareholders Set to Receive $0.47 Quarterly Dividend

Unitil Corporation (NYSE:UTL) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, October 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 13th will be given a dividend of $0.4750 per share by the utilities provider on Monday, November 30th. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 13th.

Unitil has a payout ratio of 57.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Unitil to earn $3.51 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.90 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 54.1%.

Unitil Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:UTL opened at $54.78 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 0.49 and a quick ratio of 0.45. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $52.90 and its 200-day moving average price is $52.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $998.95 million, a PE ratio of 17.28 and a beta of 0.26. Unitil has a 1 year low of $46.91 and a 1 year high of $57.26.

Unitil (NYSE:UTL) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.29 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.03. Unitil had a net margin of 9.49% and a return on equity of 9.53%. The business had revenue of $117.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $113.19 million. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Unitil will post 3.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Unitil

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Allworth Financial LP grew its position in shares of Unitil by 439.3% during the second quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 480 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 391 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Unitil by 196.1% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 610 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 404 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank raised its position in Unitil by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 35,400 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,849,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC raised its position in Unitil by 12.4% in the 3rd quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 5,982 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $304,000 after purchasing an additional 658 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its stake in Unitil by 34.7% during the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 3,170 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $166,000 after purchasing an additional 816 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.76% of the company’s stock.

Unitil Company Profile

Unitil Corporation is a regulated public utility holding company that delivers electricity and natural gas to residential, commercial and industrial customers in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Its operations focus primarily on the distribution of energy through local utility networks rather than the production of electricity or natural gas.

Through its operating subsidiaries, Unitil provides electric distribution service in portions of New Hampshire and Massachusetts and natural gas distribution service in parts of southern New Hampshire and central Massachusetts.