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

Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, April 19th, RTT News reports. Shareholders 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 an increase from Portland General Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48.

Portland General Electric has raised 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% indicating that 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 NYSE:POR opened at $42.83 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $41.09 and its two-hundred day moving average is $41.40. Portland General Electric has a 52 week low of $38.01 and a 52 week high of $51.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.38 and a beta of 0.57. 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 (NYSE:POR) last announced its quarterly 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). Portland General Electric had a net margin of 7.80% and a return on equity of 7.21%. The firm had revenue of $725.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $740.21 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.70 EPS. Portland General Electric’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Portland General Electric will post 3.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on POR shares. UBS Group upgraded shares of Portland General Electric from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $47.00 to $45.00 in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Bank of America lowered shares of Portland General Electric from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $55.00 to $43.00 in a research note on Monday, February 5th. Mizuho reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $42.00 price objective (down previously from $43.00) on shares of Portland General Electric in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Portland General Electric from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Portland General Electric from $45.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $45.13.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Portland General Electric news, COO Benjamin Felton sold 3,500 shares of Portland General Electric stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.60, for a total value of $142,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 31,950 shares in the company, valued at $1,297,170. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.54% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Portland General Electric

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in POR. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its stake in Portland General Electric by 1,022.6% in the 2nd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 3,105,863 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $145,448,000 after purchasing an additional 2,829,184 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in Portland General Electric by 86.9% in the 2nd quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,554,741 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $119,639,000 after purchasing an additional 1,187,890 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Portland General Electric by 21.8% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 6,067,961 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $334,647,000 after purchasing an additional 1,087,996 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Portland General Electric by 37.2% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,339,567 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $162,473,000 after purchasing an additional 905,308 shares during the period. Finally, Millennium Management LLC boosted its stake in Portland General Electric by 927.0% in the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 970,767 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $47,568,000 after purchasing an additional 876,246 shares during the period.

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.