NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:NWE) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:NWE) have received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the seven ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have assigned a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $51.71.

Several research firms recently weighed in on NWE. StockNews.com upgraded shares of NorthWestern Energy Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of NorthWestern Energy Group from $53.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Guggenheim upgraded shares of NorthWestern Energy Group from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $47.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of NorthWestern Energy Group from $48.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating on shares of NorthWestern Energy Group in a report on Thursday, January 4th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NorthWestern Energy Group

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of NWE. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group by 49.9% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,079,648 shares of the company’s stock valued at $307,267,000 after purchasing an additional 1,690,016 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA bought a new stake in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group during the 3rd quarter valued at about $36,513,000. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group by 42.3% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,393,653 shares of the company’s stock valued at $144,792,000 after buying an additional 711,238 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,257,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group by 40.6% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,285,766 shares of the company’s stock valued at $135,637,000 after buying an additional 660,491 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.07% of the company’s stock.

NorthWestern Energy Group Stock Performance

NYSE:NWE opened at $48.93 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.20 and a beta of 0.43. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $49.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $49.41. NorthWestern Energy Group has a twelve month low of $45.97 and a twelve month high of $60.56.

NorthWestern Energy Group (NYSE:NWE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The company reported $1.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $356.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $443.27 million. NorthWestern Energy Group had a net margin of 13.64% and a return on equity of 7.23%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.13 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that NorthWestern Energy Group will post 3.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NorthWestern Energy Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.31%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This is a positive change from NorthWestern Energy Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.64. NorthWestern Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio is 80.75%.

About NorthWestern Energy Group

NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc provides electricity and natural gas to residential, commercial, and various industrial customers. It generates, purchases, transmits, and distributes electricity; and produces, purchases, stores, transmits, and distributes natural gas, as well as owns municipal franchises to provide natural gas service in the communities.