The York Water To Reward Shareholders With Dividend Hike

The York Water Company (NASDAQ:YORW) board of directors announced a hike in the quarterly dividend to 17.33 cents per share, up 4.0% from the previous rate.

Details of the Hike

The quarterly dividend is payable on Jan 15, 2019 to shareholders of record as of Dec 31, 2018. This marks the company’s 592nd uninterrupted dividend payout and 22nd consecutive year of dividend increase.

The current annualized dividend yield of the company is 2.11%, higher than the industry’s 1.96% and the Zacks S&P 500 Composite’s 1.96%. Increase in distributable income reflects the company’s stable financial position. In the first nine months of 2018, the company reported net cash provided by operating activities of $14.4 million.

Reasons for the Dividend Hike

For the first nine months of 2018, the company invested $10.7 million in construction expenditures. The investment enabled the completion of a raw water pumping station as well as various replacements and improvements to infrastructure. Aging infrastructures of water utilities require regular investments to provide uninterrupted services.

Revenues of the company are also boosted by growth in the water customer base. The average number of water customers served in the 2018 period increased by 687 customers to 67,664 from the 2017 levels.

There are other players from the same sector that are increasing dividends to reward shareholders.

On Oct 12, 2018, Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) approved a 3.8% quarterly cash dividend raise on its common stock of 47.5 cents per share. On Oct 23, American Electric Power Company, Inc.’s (NYSE:AEP) board of directors declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of 67 cents per share on the company's common stock, up 8.1%. On Nov 7, Atmos Energy Corporation’s (NYSE:ATO) board of directors announced 8.3% hike in the company’s quarterly dividend to 52.5 cents per share.

Zacks Rank & Price Movement

The York Water currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The York Water‘s shares have gained 8.2% in the past three months compared with the industry’s rise of 3.4%.

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