SG Americas Securities LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in New Jersey Resources Co. (NYSE:NJR)

SG Americas Securities LLC lowered its holdings in shares of New Jersey Resources Co. (NYSE:NJR) by 92.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 3,256 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 39,524 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC’s holdings in New Jersey Resources were worth $145,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings 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 valued at $469,881,000 after acquiring an additional 373,802 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of New Jersey Resources by 4.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,661,984 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $416,694,000 after purchasing an additional 456,306 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in New Jersey Resources by 22.6% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,203,151 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $146,897,000 after acquiring an additional 589,747 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in New Jersey Resources by 4.5% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,854,664 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $98,668,000 after acquiring an additional 79,794 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its position in New Jersey Resources by 37.1% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,133,001 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $46,034,000 after acquiring an additional 306,406 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.98% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on NJR. StockNews.com upgraded New Jersey Resources from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Mizuho lowered their price target on New Jersey Resources from $47.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 5th.

New Jersey Resources Trading Down 0.7 %

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

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

New Jersey Resources Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 13th were issued a $0.42 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 12th. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.07%. 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.