Artesian Resources Co. (NASDAQ:ARTNA) Increases Dividend to $0.30 Per Share

Artesian Resources Co. (NASDAQ:ARTNA) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, January 27th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be paid a dividend of 0.3014 per share by the utilities provider on Friday, February 21st. This represents a $1.21 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.82%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 7th. This is a boost from Artesian Resources’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30.

Artesian Resources has raised its dividend by an average of 4.1% per year over the last three years. Artesian Resources has a payout ratio of 57.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Artesian Resources to earn $2.00 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.21 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 60.5%.

Artesian Resources Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of ARTNA stock opened at $31.52 on Wednesday. Artesian Resources has a fifty-two week low of $29.45 and a fifty-two week high of $41.29. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $31.81 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $34.71. The stock has a market cap of $324.66 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.46 and a beta of 0.23. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74.

Artesian Resources (NASDAQ:ARTNA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The utilities provider reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.05. Artesian Resources had a net margin of 18.96% and a return on equity of 8.57%. The firm had revenue of $29.14 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $29.00 million. On average, analysts anticipate that Artesian Resources will post 1.92 EPS for the current year.

Artesian Resources Company Profile

Artesian Resources Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides water, wastewater, and other services in Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. The company distributes and sells water to residential, commercial, industrial, governmental, municipal, and utility customers, as well as for public and private fire protection in the states of Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania; and offers wastewater collection, treatment infrastructure, and wastewater services to customers in Delaware.