New Jersey Resources Co. (NYSE:NJR) Shares Bought by Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc.

Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. raised its holdings in New Jersey Resources Co. (NYSE:NJR) by 59.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 33,276 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 12,353 shares during the quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc.’s holdings in New Jersey Resources were worth $1,552,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. FNY Investment Advisers LLC grew its stake in New Jersey Resources by 2,500.0% in the 4th quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC now owns 10,400 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $485,000 after acquiring an additional 10,000 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in New Jersey Resources by 23.6% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,288 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $107,000 after purchasing an additional 437 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position in shares of New Jersey Resources by 9,400.0% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 665 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 658 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of New Jersey Resources by 16.6% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 609,199 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $28,754,000 after purchasing an additional 86,742 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of New Jersey Resources by 57.5% during the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 22,532 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,150,000 after purchasing an additional 8,230 shares during the last quarter. 70.98% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Guggenheim increased their target price on New Jersey Resources from $46.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. StockNews.com lowered New Jersey Resources from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of New Jersey Resources from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $52.00 to $54.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of New Jersey Resources from $51.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of New Jersey Resources from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $51.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at New Jersey Resources

In other news, COO Patrick J. Migliaccio sold 4,983 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.00, for a total transaction of $229,218.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 37,124 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,707,704. This represents a 11.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.72% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

New Jersey Resources Stock Performance

New Jersey Resources stock opened at $46.03 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $47.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $46.51. The stock has a market cap of $4.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.76 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.31, a current ratio of 0.62 and a quick ratio of 0.36. New Jersey Resources Co. has a 1-year low of $39.44 and a 1-year high of $51.94.

New Jersey Resources (NYSE:NJR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 25th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89. New Jersey Resources had a net margin of 16.13% and a return on equity of 13.54%. The firm had revenue of $395.78 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $406.97 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.30 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 19.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that New Jersey Resources Co. will post 3.1 EPS for the current year.

New Jersey Resources Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 11th were paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.91%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 11th. New Jersey Resources’s payout ratio is 61.64%.

New Jersey Resources Profile

New Jersey Resources Corporation, an energy services holding company, distributes natural gas. The company operates through four segments: Natural Gas Distribution, Clean Energy Ventures, Energy Services, and Storage and Transportation. The Natural Gas Distribution segment offers regulated natural gas utility services to approximately 576,000 customers in Burlington, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, and Sussex counties in New Jersey; provides capacity and storage management services; and participates in the off-system sales and capacity release markets.