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

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

Southwest Gas has raised its dividend by an average of 3.2% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 17 years. Southwest Gas has a payout ratio of 68.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities 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 Stock Down 3.6 %

Shares of SWX traded down $2.81 on Wednesday, reaching $76.30. The stock had a trading volume of 544,594 shares, compared to its average volume of 376,863. Southwest Gas has a 12-month low of $57.55 and a 12-month high of $79.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.07 and a beta of 0.38. 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 company has a 50-day simple moving average of $74.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $73.64.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Carl C. Icahn sold 1,390,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $739,206,030.96. The trade was a 12.61 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Robert J. Stefani sold 767 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.14, for a total value of $56,098.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 43,438 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,177,055.32. This represents a 1.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.39% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on SWX. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Southwest Gas from $74.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Southwest Gas from $78.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research 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.