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Reasons to Add New Jersey Resources Stock to Your Portfolio Now

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New Jersey Resources (NJR - Free Report) continues to benefit from its investments in infrastructure that help serve its expanding customer base more efficiently. Given its earnings growth opportunities and strong return on equity (ROE), NJR makes for a solid investment option in the utility sector.

Let’s focus on the factors that make this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company a strong investment pick at the moment.

NJR’s Growth Projections

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2024 earnings per share (EPS) has moved up 0.3% in the past 60 days to $2.95.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal fourth-quarter 2024 EPS has moved up 14.1% in the past 60 days to 89 cents.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal fourth-quarter 2024 sales is pinned at $406.97 million, indicating year-over-year growth of 22.8%.

NJR’s Solvency

The time-to-interest earned ratio at the end of fiscal third quarter was 3.3. The ratio, being greater than one, reflects the company’s ability to meet future interest obligations without difficulties.

NJR’s Return on Equity

ROE indicates how efficiently a company has been utilizing the funds to generate higher returns. Currently, New Jersey Resources’ ROE is 11.06%, higher than the industry’s average of 9.33%. This indicates that the company has been utilizing the funds more constructively than its peers in the utility gas distribution industry.

NJR’s Dividend Growth

NJR has been increasing shareholders' value by paying dividends. Currently, its quarterly dividend is 42 cents per share, resulting in an annualized dividend of $1.68 per share, up 7.7% from the previous figure of $1.56. The company’s current dividend yield is 3.63%, better than the Zacks S&P 500 composite’s 1.25%. 

NJR’s Systematic Investments & Customer Growth

New Jersey Resources makes consistent investments to upgrade and maintain its existing infrastructure. The idea is to provide reliable services to its customers around the clock. The company expects capital expenditures to be in the range of $490-$580 million and $495-$675 million for fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2025, respectively.

The company added 5,939 new customers during the first nine months of fiscal 2024 compared with 5,892 in the corresponding period of fiscal 2023. It expects these new customers to contribute nearly $5.1 million of incremental utility gross margin on an annualized basis.

Price Performance of NJR Stock

In the past two years, shares of the company have risen 4.1% against the industry’s 5.1% decline.

 

Zacks Investment Research
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Other Stocks to Consider

A few other top-ranked stocks from the same industry are National Fuel Gas Company (NFG - Free Report) , Northwest Natural (NWN - Free Report) and UGI Corporation (UGI - Free Report) , each holding a Zacks Rank #2 at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for NFG’s fiscal 2024 EPS has moved up 10.1% in the past 60 days to $5.13. NFG delivered an average earnings surprise of 9.8% in the trailing four quarters.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for NWN’s 2024 EPS has moved up 1.8% in the past 30 days to $2.32. NFG delivered an average earnings surprise of 8.7% in the trailing four quarters.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for UGI’s fiscal 2024 EPS indicates a year-over-year improvement of 3.2%. The company delivered an average earnings surprise of 99.1% in the trailing four quarters.

 

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