Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR) Raises Dividend to $0.50 Per Share

Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, April 19th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 24th will be paid a dividend of 0.50 per share by the utilities provider on Monday, July 15th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.67%. This is a boost from Portland General Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48.

Portland General Electric has increased its dividend payment by an average of 5.8% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 18 years. Portland General Electric has a dividend payout ratio of 58.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Portland General Electric to earn $3.22 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.90 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 59.0%.

Portland General Electric Price Performance

Shares of POR opened at $42.80 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $4.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.37 and a beta of 0.57. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $41.09 and a 200-day moving average of $41.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. Portland General Electric has a 52 week low of $38.01 and a 52 week high of $51.58.

Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 16th. The utilities provider reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.88 by ($0.20). The firm had revenue of $725.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $740.21 million. Portland General Electric had a return on equity of 7.21% and a net margin of 7.80%. Portland General Electric’s revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.70 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Portland General Electric will post 3.07 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Portland General Electric news, COO Benjamin Felton sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.60, for a total transaction of $142,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 31,950 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,297,170. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co NY boosted its position in Portland General Electric by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co NY now owns 5,617 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $275,000 after acquiring an additional 237 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its position in Portland General Electric by 6.4% during the 1st quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 4,394 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $244,000 after acquiring an additional 264 shares during the period. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its position in Portland General Electric by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 34,001 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,477,000 after acquiring an additional 268 shares during the period. Baird Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in Portland General Electric by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 41,436 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,030,000 after acquiring an additional 268 shares during the period. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio boosted its position in Portland General Electric by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 4,566 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $185,000 after acquiring an additional 325 shares during the period.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on POR. UBS Group upgraded Portland General Electric from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $47.00 to $45.00 in a research report on Monday, January 29th. StockNews.com lowered Portland General Electric from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 27th. Mizuho restated a “neutral” rating and set a $42.00 price objective (down previously from $43.00) on shares of Portland General Electric in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Bank of America lowered Portland General Electric from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $55.00 to $43.00 in a research report on Monday, February 5th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on Portland General Electric from $45.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.13.

Portland General Electric Company Profile

Portland General Electric Company, an integrated electric utility company, engages in the generation, wholesale purchase, transmission, distribution, and retail sale of electricity in the state of Oregon. It operates six thermal plants, three wind farms, and seven hydroelectric facilities. As of December 31, 2023, the company owned an electric transmission system consisting of 1,254 circuit miles, including 287 circuit miles of 500 kilovolt line, 413 circuit miles of 230 kilovolt line, and 554 miles of 115 kilovolt line; and served 934 thousand retail customers in 51 cities.