Boston, MA 03/18/2014 (wallstreetpr) – Piedmont Natural Gas Company, Inc. (NYSE:PNY) an energy service company has seen its stock upgraded to a neutral rating by research equity firm Ned Davis. The research firm previously, had a sell rating on the company stock upgrading it after posting relatively impressive First quarter results.
Piedmont has also announced that its quarterly dividend payment will be carried out on April 15, this will see shareholders on record as of March 25 earning a dividend payment of $0.32 per share held. This will be a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis with a yield of 3.76% with the ex-dividend date being set on March 21, 2014. Piedmont is an energy service company that distributes natural gas to over one million residential commercial and industrial customers in North/South Carolina and Tennessee.
Piedmont Quarterly earnings
Piedmont Natural Gas Company, Inc. (NYSE:PNY) last posted its quarterly earnings on March 6 that saw it report earnings per share of $1.26 against consensus estimates of $1.19. Net revenue for the quarter came in at $657.70 million above consensus estimates of $560 million with revenue also surging to a high of 27.5% compared to that of the same quarter the prior year.
Piedmont net income clocked in at $97.6 million compared to a net income of $85.9 million for the first quarter of 2013. Margins for the quarter stood at $261.5 million an increase of $29.9 million compared to the fourth quarter of 2013. The high margins for the quarter was mainly as a result of increased marketing activity during the harsh weather conditions of the months of February and January.
Piedmont Natural Gas Company, Inc. (NYSE:PNY) operations and maintenance expenses for the quarter totaled $60.6 million a surge of $4.8 million compared to the first quarter of 2013, this was mainly as a result of an increase in payroll. Utility charges for the quarter on the other hand stood at $10.6 million a high, compared to a low of $4.5 million reported for the same period in 2013.
Piedmont Natural Gas Company, Inc. (NYSE:PNY) was up by 1.26% on Monday trading session closing the day at a high of $35.39.
