Eni S.p.A. (NYSE:E) Announces — Dividend of $0.50

Eni S.p.A. (NYSE:E) declared a — dividend on Friday, June 7th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 19th will be paid a dividend of 0.4993 per share by the oil and gas exploration company on Friday, December 6th. This represents a dividend yield of 4.7%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 19th.

ENI has increased its dividend by an average of 16.3% annually over the last three years. ENI has a dividend payout ratio of 55.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect ENI to earn $3.01 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.17 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 72.1%.

ENI Price Performance

Shares of NYSE E opened at $29.69 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The stock has a market cap of $50.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.78, a PEG ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 0.95. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $30.76 and its 200 day moving average price is $31.08. ENI has a 52 week low of $28.74 and a 52 week high of $34.30.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on E shares. Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of ENI from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. BNP Paribas raised ENI from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Morgan Stanley raised ENI from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $39.60 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of ENI from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of ENI from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $39.60.

About ENI

Eni S.p.A. operates as an integrated energy company worldwide. The company engages in exploration, development, extracting, manufacturing, and marketing crude oil and natural gas, oil-based fuels, chemical products, and gas-fired power, as well as energy products from renewable sources. It operates through Exploration & Production; Global Gas & LNG Portfolio (GGP); Enilive, Refining and Chemicals; Plenitude & Power; and Corporate and Other Activities segments.