Passumpsic Savings Bank Acquires Shares of 11,153 NorthWestern Corporation $NWE

Passumpsic Savings Bank acquired a new stake in shares of NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 11,153 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $720,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of NWE. UBS Group AG boosted its stake in shares of NorthWestern by 479.9% during the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 707,822 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,683,000 after purchasing an additional 585,768 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in shares of NorthWestern by 65.6% during the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,222,376 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,708,000 after purchasing an additional 484,266 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of NorthWestern by 69.7% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,147,269 shares of the company’s stock valued at $67,241,000 after purchasing an additional 471,125 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners boosted its stake in shares of NorthWestern by 595.7% during the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 525,581 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,805,000 after purchasing an additional 450,039 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. boosted its stake in shares of NorthWestern by 1,211.4% during the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 430,361 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,223,000 after purchasing an additional 397,544 shares in the last quarter. 96.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

NorthWestern Stock Performance

NASDAQ NWE opened at $70.24 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10. The firm has a market cap of $4.32 billion, a PE ratio of 25.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.71 and a beta of 0.35. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $69.39 and a 200 day moving average price of $67.53. NorthWestern Corporation has a 52 week low of $50.46 and a 52 week high of $75.18.

NorthWestern (NASDAQ:NWE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $1.31 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $516.60 million during the quarter. NorthWestern had a net margin of 10.21% and a return on equity of 7.80%. The company’s revenue was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.22 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that NorthWestern Corporation will post 3.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NorthWestern Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.8%. NorthWestern’s dividend payout ratio is presently 98.53%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on NWE shares. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded shares of NorthWestern from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $56.00 to $75.50 in a research note on Wednesday, April 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of NorthWestern from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of NorthWestern from $62.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of NorthWestern to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “underweight” rating and set a $54.00 price objective on shares of NorthWestern in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NorthWestern presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $68.30.

NorthWestern Profile

NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ: NWE) is a regulated energy company that delivers electricity and natural gas to residential, commercial and industrial customers. Through its Electric Operations and Gas Operations segments, the company operates an extensive network of distribution lines, substations and pipelines. NorthWestern’s services encompass the delivery of power sourced from regional transmission systems and the procurement, storage and distribution of natural gas to end users.

Electric delivery services include the management of distribution infrastructure, customer metering and system reliability programs.