Meritage Portfolio Management Buys New Shares in NewJersey Resources Corporation $NJR

Meritage Portfolio Management acquired a new stake in NewJersey Resources Corporation (NYSE:NJR) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 96,613 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $4,330,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in NJR. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of NewJersey Resources by 83.7% in the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,859 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $91,000 after buying an additional 847 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of NewJersey Resources by 27.4% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,915 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $143,000 after buying an additional 627 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in shares of NewJersey Resources by 8.5% in the 1st quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 11,228 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $551,000 after buying an additional 881 shares in the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its stake in shares of NewJersey Resources by 12.4% in the 1st quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 253,095 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,417,000 after buying an additional 27,845 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Good Life Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of NewJersey Resources by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Good Life Advisors LLC now owns 34,976 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,716,000 after buying an additional 333 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on NJR. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $50.00 price objective (up previously from $49.00) on shares of NewJersey Resources in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of NewJersey Resources in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of NewJersey Resources from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $51.43.

NewJersey Resources Stock Down 0.8%

Shares of NYSE:NJR opened at $45.65 on Friday. NewJersey Resources Corporation has a 12 month low of $43.80 and a 12 month high of $51.94. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $46.99 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $46.76. The company has a quick ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25. The firm has a market cap of $4.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.16 and a beta of 0.64.

NewJersey Resources (NYSE:NJR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 19th. The utilities provider reported $1.36 EPS for the quarter. NewJersey Resources had a net margin of 19.64% and a return on equity of 17.08%. The firm had revenue of $912.32 million for the quarter. As a group, research analysts forecast that NewJersey Resources Corporation will post 3.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NewJersey Resources Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.475 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 22nd. This represents a $1.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.2%. This is an increase from NewJersey Resources’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. NewJersey Resources’s payout ratio is currently 46.45%.

NewJersey Resources Company Profile

New Jersey Resources Corporation, an energy services holding company, distributes natural gas. The company operates through four segments: Natural Gas Distribution, Clean Energy Ventures, Energy Services, and Storage and Transportation. The Natural Gas Distribution segment offers regulated natural gas utility services to approximately 576,000 customers in Burlington, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, and Sussex counties in New Jersey; provides capacity and storage management services; and participates in the off-system sales and capacity release markets.