Legal & General Group Plc Sells 5,077 Shares of Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH)

Legal & General Group Plc decreased its position in shares of Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) by 1.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 380,090 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 5,077 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Black Hills were worth $22,243,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Black Hills by 66.8% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 432 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 173 shares during the period. Barnett & Company Inc. lifted its stake in Black Hills by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Barnett & Company Inc. now owns 7,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $439,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Black Hills by 8.2% in the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,919 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $171,000 after purchasing an additional 222 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Black Hills by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 6,716 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $393,000 after purchasing an additional 263 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State of Alaska Department of Revenue increased its stake in shares of Black Hills by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 8,162 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $477,000 after purchasing an additional 270 shares during the last quarter. 86.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Black Hills Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BKH opened at $58.39 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $59.67 and a 200 day simple moving average of $59.91. The company has a market cap of $4.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.89, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.64. Black Hills Co. has a one year low of $50.73 and a one year high of $65.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.77.

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

Black Hills Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a dividend of $0.676 per share. This is a boost from Black Hills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. Black Hills’s payout ratio is 68.88%.

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.