Chesapeake Utilities Co. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.64 (NYSE:CPK)

Chesapeake Utilities Co. (NYSE:CPK) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 26th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of 0.64 per share by the utilities provider on Monday, April 7th. This represents a $2.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.02%.

Chesapeake Utilities has increased its dividend by an average of 10.1% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 21 years. Chesapeake Utilities has a payout ratio of 37.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Chesapeake Utilities to earn $6.25 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.56 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 41.0%.

Chesapeake Utilities Price Performance

CPK traded up $0.01 on Wednesday, hitting $126.59. 16,118 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 74,000. The business has a 50-day moving average of $121.78 and a two-hundred day moving average of $122.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.38 and a quick ratio of 0.32. Chesapeake Utilities has a 12 month low of $98.32 and a 12 month high of $134.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.68 and a beta of 0.65.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on CPK. Guggenheim increased their price objective on shares of Chesapeake Utilities from $118.00 to $129.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Chesapeake Utilities from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Chesapeake Utilities currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $123.00.

About Chesapeake Utilities

Chesapeake Utilities Corporation operates as an energy delivery company. The company operates through two segments, Regulated Energy and Unregulated Energy. The Regulated Energy segment natural gas distribution operations in central and southern Delaware, Maryland's eastern shore, and Florida; regulated natural gas transmission in the Delmarva Peninsula, Ohio, and Florida; and regulated electric distribution in northeast and northwest Florida.