Otter Tail Co. (NASDAQ:OTTR) to Issue Dividend Increase – $0.53 Per Share

Otter Tail Co. (NASDAQ:OTTR) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 5th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.525 per share by the utilities provider on Monday, March 10th. This represents a $2.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from Otter Tail’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.47.

Otter Tail has increased its dividend by an average of 6.2% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 11 years. Otter Tail has a payout ratio of 37.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Otter Tail to earn $4.31 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.87 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 43.4%.

Otter Tail Trading Up 3.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ OTTR opened at $78.88 on Thursday. Otter Tail has a 1 year low of $71.66 and a 1 year high of $100.84. The stock has a market cap of $3.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.90 and a beta of 0.57. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $76.73 and a 200 day moving average of $80.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 2.17 and a quick ratio of 1.66.

Otter Tail (NASDAQ:OTTR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The utilities provider reported $2.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.97 by $0.06. Otter Tail had a net margin of 22.70% and a return on equity of 19.84%. The company had revenue of $338.03 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $362.20 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.19 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Otter Tail will post 7.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on OTTR. StockNews.com raised shares of Otter Tail from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Siebert Williams Shank raised shares of Otter Tail from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th.

Otter Tail Company Profile

Otter Tail Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in electric utility, manufacturing, and plastic pipe businesses in the United States. It operates through three segments: Electric, Manufacturing, and Plastics. The Electric segment produces, transmits, distributes, and sells electric energy in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota; and operates as a participant in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator markets.