NorthWestern Corporation (NWE) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.67 on June 30th

NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be given a dividend of 0.67 per share on Tuesday, June 30th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 15th.

NorthWestern has raised its dividend payment by an average of 0.0%annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 21 consecutive years. NorthWestern has a payout ratio of 69.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect NorthWestern to earn $3.99 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.68 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 67.2%.

NorthWestern Stock Performance

NWE opened at $71.05 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $70.82 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $68.46. NorthWestern has a 1-year low of $50.46 and a 1-year high of $75.18. The company has a market cap of $4.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.12, a PEG ratio of 3.67 and a beta of 0.34.

NorthWestern (NASDAQ:NWE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $1.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.02. NorthWestern had a net margin of 10.21% and a return on equity of 7.80%. The firm had revenue of $516.60 million for the quarter. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.22 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that NorthWestern will post 3.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on NWE. Wall Street Zen raised NorthWestern to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 25th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on NorthWestern from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised NorthWestern from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $56.00 to $75.50 in a report on Wednesday, April 1st. Barclays boosted their price objective on NorthWestern from $62.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 20th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $54.00 price objective on shares of NorthWestern in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $68.30.

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.