South Dakota Investment Council Sells 9,600 Shares of NorthWestern Corporation $NWE

South Dakota Investment Council lessened its stake in NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE) by 9.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 93,111 shares of the company’s stock after selling 9,600 shares during the period. South Dakota Investment Council owned approximately 0.15% of NorthWestern worth $6,140,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. UBS Group AG grew its stake in shares of NorthWestern by 479.9% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 707,822 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,683,000 after buying an additional 585,768 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its stake in NorthWestern by 536.6% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 26,325 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,699,000 after acquiring an additional 22,190 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its position in NorthWestern by 11,652.2% in the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 67,928 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,479,000 after acquiring an additional 67,350 shares in the last quarter. Caxton Associates LLP acquired a new position in shares of NorthWestern during the 1st quarter worth $43,340,000. Finally, Passumpsic Savings Bank acquired a new position in shares of NorthWestern during the 4th quarter worth $720,000. Institutional investors own 96.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays raised their price target on shares of NorthWestern from $62.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 20th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of NorthWestern to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 25th. Weiss Ratings upgraded NorthWestern from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and issued a $54.00 price target on shares of NorthWestern in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on NorthWestern from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $70.10.

NorthWestern Trading Down 1.2%

NorthWestern stock opened at $69.73 on Friday. NorthWestern Corporation has a 52 week low of $52.24 and a 52 week high of $75.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a current ratio of 0.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.29 billion, a PE ratio of 25.17, a PEG ratio of 3.73 and a beta of 0.34. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $71.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $69.80.

NorthWestern (NASDAQ:NWE) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $392.60 million during the quarter. NorthWestern had a return on equity of 8.03% and a net margin of 10.13%.NorthWestern’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.40 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that NorthWestern Corporation will post 3.75 earnings per share for the current year.

NorthWestern Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 17th will be given a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 17th. NorthWestern’s dividend payout ratio is currently 98.53%.

NorthWestern Company 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.