Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund Acquires 300 Shares of Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH)

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund grew its holdings in Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) by 2.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,522 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund’s holdings in Black Hills were worth $850,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of BKH. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Black Hills by 2.1% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Zimmer Partners LP acquired a new position in shares of Black Hills in the third quarter valued at $96,374,000. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in shares of Black Hills by 109.8% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 882,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $53,356,000 after purchasing an additional 461,894 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its stake in shares of Black Hills by 4.5% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 500,826 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $30,610,000 after purchasing an additional 21,697 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of Black Hills by 16.0% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 408,877 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $24,991,000 after purchasing an additional 56,440 shares in the last quarter. 86.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Black Hills Stock Performance

Black Hills stock opened at $61.20 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.77. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $58.70 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $59.88. Black Hills Co. has a 52-week low of $50.72 and a 52-week high of $65.59. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.73.

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, topping 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%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Black Hills Co. will post 4.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Black Hills Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were paid a dividend of $0.676 per share. This is a positive change from Black Hills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. Black Hills’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.88%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

About Black Hills

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.