(1) Price

(2) Dividends

(3) Returns

Besides those three, several other keys will finally unlock an equity or fund in which to invest, or not.

Those three basic keys, however, best tell whether a company has made, is making, and will make money.

SJI Price

South Jersey's price per share closed at $31.34 yesterday. A year ago its price was $30.21. So, in the past year, its price moved up $1.13, about 3.75%.

Assuming South Jersey's stock trades in the same range of $28 to $34 this next year, it's recent $31.34 price could rise by $2.66  to reach $34.00 by early-December, 2020, assuming some upward price momentum continues.

SJI Dividends

South Jersey's latest declared quarterly dividend was $0.295  per share payable December 27th.

That $0.295 Q dividend equates to $1.18 annually and yields 3.77% based on yesterday's $31.34 closing price.

SJI Gains?

Adding the $1.18 annual estimated dividend to my $2.66  optimistic estimate of South Jersey's price upside shows a $3.84 potential gross gain, per share, which will be reduced by any costs to trade these shares.

As, for costs, a little under $1,000.00 invested today in South Jersey Industries Inc at its recent $31.84 price, would buy 31 shares of SJI.

A $10 broker fee paid half at purchase and half at sale could cost us about $0.32 per share.

Subtract that $0.32 brokerage cost from the estimated $3.84 gross estimated gain per share leaves a net gain of $3.52 X 31 shares = $109.12 or a 10.9% net gain on a $987.04 investment.

Therefore, South Jersey Industries Inc, whose trading ticker symbol is SJI shows a possible 10.9% net gain including a 3.77% dividend yield. It could be more, it could be less.

The above speculation is based on past year performance. The actual results remain to be seen to learn if South Jersey Industries Inc, is worth your time and money.