NetEase, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTES) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.44

NetEase, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTES) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 21st, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 6th will be paid a dividend of 0.435 per share by the technology company on Monday, March 17th. This represents a $1.74 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 6th.

NetEase has raised its dividend by an average of 43.6% per year over the last three years. NetEase has a dividend payout ratio of 21.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect NetEase to earn $7.32 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.74 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 23.8%.

NetEase Stock Performance

NetEase stock opened at $103.22 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $97.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $89.75. The company has a market capitalization of $66.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.20, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.58. NetEase has a fifty-two week low of $75.85 and a fifty-two week high of $114.50.

NetEase (NASDAQ:NTES) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The technology company reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.73 by $0.14. NetEase had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 28.17%. The business had revenue of $3.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $27.16 billion. As a group, analysts forecast that NetEase will post 6.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on NTES shares. StockNews.com cut shares of NetEase from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Bank of America upped their price objective on NetEase from $120.00 to $122.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Benchmark lifted their target price on NetEase from $105.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Citigroup upped their price target on NetEase from $108.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of NetEase from $108.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $111.43.

About NetEase

NetEase, Inc engages in online games, music streaming, online intelligent learning services, and internet content services businesses in China and internationally . The company operates through Games and Related Value-Added Services, Youdao, Cloud Music, and Innovative Businesses and Others segments.