ONE Gas, Inc. (NYSE:OGS) Plans Dividend Increase – $0.67 Per Share

ONE Gas, Inc. (NYSE:OGS) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 21st,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be given a dividend of 0.67 per share by the utilities provider on Friday, March 7th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.71%. This is a boost from ONE Gas’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66.

ONE Gas has raised its dividend by an average of 4.4% per year over the last three years. ONE Gas has a dividend payout ratio of 58.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect ONE Gas to earn $4.26 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.64 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 62.0%.

ONE Gas Stock Performance

ONE Gas stock opened at $72.30 on Wednesday. ONE Gas has a 12-month low of $57.74 and a 12-month high of $78.89. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $72.18 and a 200 day simple moving average of $70.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.83, a P/E/G ratio of 5.91 and a beta of 0.71.

ONE Gas (NYSE:OGS) last announced its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The utilities provider reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by ($0.05). ONE Gas had a return on equity of 7.71% and a net margin of 10.52%. The company had revenue of $340.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $287.48 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.45 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that ONE Gas will post 3.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on OGS shares. Bank of America assumed coverage on ONE Gas in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $77.00 price objective on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on ONE Gas from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of ONE Gas from $82.00 to $81.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of ONE Gas from $73.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of ONE Gas from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $72.69.

About ONE Gas

ONE Gas, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a regulated natural gas distribution company in the United States. The company provides natural gas distribution services to approximately 2.3 million customers in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas. It serves residential, commercial, and transportation customers.