Enerplus Co. (NYSE:ERF) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.07

Enerplus Co. (NYSE:ERF) (TSE:ERF) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, May 8th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 22nd will be paid a dividend of 0.065 per share by the oil and natural gas company on Tuesday, June 4th. This represents a $0.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 21st.

Enerplus has increased its dividend by an average of 37.4% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 1 consecutive years. Enerplus has a dividend payout ratio of 12.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Enerplus to earn $2.27 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.26 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 11.5%.

Enerplus Stock Performance

ERF stock traded down $0.14 on Friday, reaching $19.97. 485,109 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,851,077. Enerplus has a 12 month low of $13.46 and a 12 month high of $20.97. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $19.43 and its 200 day moving average price is $16.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.08 billion, a PE ratio of 9.58 and a beta of 1.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Enerplus (NYSE:ERF) (TSE:ERF) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The oil and natural gas company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $437.10 million for the quarter. Enerplus had a net margin of 27.67% and a return on equity of 40.36%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Enerplus will post 1.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ERF. Royal Bank of Canada lowered shares of Enerplus from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $21.00 to $22.00 in a report on Monday, April 29th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Enerplus in a research report on Wednesday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. CIBC cut their target price on shares of Enerplus from $23.00 to $19.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, TD Securities upped their target price on shares of Enerplus from $19.07 to $20.09 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Enerplus presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $21.87.

Enerplus Company Profile

Enerplus Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, explores and develops crude oil and natural gas in the United States. Its oil and natural gas properties are located primarily in North Dakota, Colorado, and Pennsylvania. The company was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.