Covestor Ltd Grows Stock Holdings in Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH)

Covestor Ltd raised its stake in Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) by 1,033.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 3,604 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,286 shares during the quarter. Covestor Ltd’s holdings in Black Hills were worth $211,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in BKH. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Black Hills by 4,751.1% in the fourth quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 16,154 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $945,000 after purchasing an additional 15,821 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Black Hills by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,663,157 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $101,671,000 after purchasing an additional 33,853 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Black Hills by 16.0% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 408,877 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $24,991,000 after buying an additional 56,440 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in Black Hills by 181.5% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 473 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 305 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC increased its holdings in Black Hills by 8.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 117,828 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,202,000 after buying an additional 9,002 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.71% of the company’s stock.

Black Hills Price Performance

NYSE:BKH opened at $58.19 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $4.19 billion, a PE ratio of 14.85, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a quick ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $59.69 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $59.94. Black Hills Co. has a 52 week low of $50.73 and a 52 week high of $65.59.

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.17. Black Hills had a net margin of 12.84% and a return on equity of 7.82%. As a group, analysts forecast that Black Hills Co. will post 4.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Black Hills Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th were paid a dividend of $0.676 per share. This is an increase from Black Hills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.65%. Black Hills’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.88%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of Black Hills from $67.00 to $66.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th.

Black Hills Company Profile

Black Hills Corporation, through its subsidiaries, operates as an electric and natural gas utility company in the United States. The company operates in two segments: Electric Utilities and Gas Utilities. The Electric Utilities segment generates, transmits, and distributes electricity to approximately 222,000 electric utility customers in Colorado, Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming; and owns and operates 1,394 megawatts of generation capacity and 9,106 miles of electric transmission and distribution lines.