NorthWestern Corporation $NWE Shares Acquired by New York Life Investment Management LLC

New York Life Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE) by 6.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 137,843 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 8,765 shares during the period. New York Life Investment Management LLC’s holdings in NorthWestern were worth $8,896,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Signaturefd LLC raised its position in shares of NorthWestern by 28.5% during the 4th quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 879 shares of the company’s stock worth $57,000 after purchasing an additional 195 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund increased its position in NorthWestern by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 19,320 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,132,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the period. Strs Ohio increased its position in NorthWestern by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 18,800 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,213,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its position in NorthWestern by 34.3% in the 2nd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 845 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares during the period. Finally, Advisory Services Network LLC increased its position in NorthWestern by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 6,763 shares of the company’s stock valued at $396,000 after acquiring an additional 224 shares during the period. 96.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on NWE shares. Wall Street Zen upgraded NorthWestern to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 25th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $54.00 target price on shares of NorthWestern in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on NorthWestern from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded NorthWestern from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $56.00 to $75.50 in a research report on Wednesday, April 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on NorthWestern from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NorthWestern has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $68.30.

NorthWestern Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NWE opened at $70.24 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $69.39 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $67.49. 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 cap of $4.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.82, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 0.35. NorthWestern Corporation has a 1 year low of $50.46 and a 1 year high of $75.18.

NorthWestern (NASDAQ:NWE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $1.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $516.60 million during the quarter. NorthWestern had a return on equity of 7.80% and a net margin of 10.21%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.22 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that NorthWestern Corporation will post 3.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NorthWestern Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.8%. NorthWestern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.