Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) Sets New 1-Year High – Here’s Why

Black Hills Corporation (NYSE:BKH)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $72.02 and last traded at $71.9020, with a volume of 1949495 shares. The stock had previously closed at $71.13.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Bank of America upgraded shares of Black Hills from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $57.00 to $64.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 20th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Black Hills in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Scotiabank upgraded Black Hills from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $81.00 in a report on Friday, November 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Black Hills presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $71.00.

Black Hills Trading Down 0.5%

The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $62.09 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $59.65. The company has a quick ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The company has a market capitalization of $5.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 0.76.

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45. The business had revenue of $430.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $439.96 million. Black Hills had a net margin of 12.68% and a return on equity of 7.81%. Black Hills’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.35 EPS. Black Hills has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.000-4.20 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Black Hills Corporation will post 4.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Black Hills Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.676 per share. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 17th. Black Hills’s payout ratio is 68.18%.

Institutional Trading of Black Hills

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Black Hills by 2.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,990,841 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $553,746,000 after purchasing an additional 225,636 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in Black Hills by 0.8% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,841,615 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $215,515,000 after purchasing an additional 31,093 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Black Hills by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,822,356 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $102,252,000 after acquiring an additional 36,818 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of Black Hills by 59.3% during the second quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,045,165 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $58,634,000 after purchasing an additional 388,936 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Black Hills by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 899,103 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $50,440,000 after buying an additional 10,691 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.71% of the company’s stock.

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.