DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale Sells 3,488 Shares of New Jersey Resources Co. (NYSE:NJR)

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lowered its position in shares of New Jersey Resources Co. (NYSE:NJR) by 35.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 6,338 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 3,488 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale’s holdings in New Jersey Resources were worth $283,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp boosted its stake in New Jersey Resources by 11.8% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,095,820 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $540,987,000 after acquiring an additional 1,069,306 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of New Jersey Resources in the 4th quarter valued at $39,226,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of New Jersey Resources by 22.6% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,203,151 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $146,897,000 after purchasing an additional 589,747 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of New Jersey Resources by 3.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,564,868 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $469,881,000 after purchasing an additional 373,802 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in New Jersey Resources by 151.1% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 602,011 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $27,609,000 after purchasing an additional 362,282 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on NJR shares. StockNews.com upgraded New Jersey Resources from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of New Jersey Resources from $47.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 5th.

New Jersey Resources Price Performance

Shares of NJR opened at $41.28 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $42.04 and a 200 day simple moving average of $42.44. New Jersey Resources Co. has a 52-week low of $38.92 and a 52-week high of $54.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a current ratio of 0.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.06 billion, a PE ratio of 16.92 and a beta of 0.64.

New Jersey Resources (NYSE:NJR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.89 by ($0.15). New Jersey Resources had a net margin of 13.96% and a return on equity of 11.13%. The company had revenue of $467.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $812.66 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.14 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 35.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that New Jersey Resources Co. will post 2.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

New Jersey Resources Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 13th were issued a dividend of $0.42 per share. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 12th. New Jersey Resources’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.85%.

New Jersey Resources 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.