NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE) Receives $68.30 Average PT from Analysts

NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the six ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $68.30.

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on NWE. Wall Street Zen raised NorthWestern to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 25th. Barclays upped 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. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $54.00 price objective on shares of NorthWestern in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on NorthWestern from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of NorthWestern in a report on Tuesday, May 26th.

NorthWestern Stock Performance

Shares of NWE opened at $71.75 on Friday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $4.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.38, a P/E/G ratio of 3.75 and a beta of 0.34. The company’s fifty day moving average is $71.00 and its two-hundred day moving average is $68.62. NorthWestern has a 1 year low of $50.54 and a 1 year high of $75.18.

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

NorthWestern Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. NorthWestern’s dividend payout ratio is currently 98.53%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NorthWestern

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Kintayl Capital LP acquired a new stake in NorthWestern in the third quarter valued at $7,619,000. Citigroup Inc. grew its holdings in NorthWestern by 1,211.4% in the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 430,361 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,223,000 after purchasing an additional 397,544 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in NorthWestern by 0.6% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,968,816 shares of the company’s stock valued at $174,002,000 after purchasing an additional 16,602 shares during the last quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC grew its holdings in NorthWestern by 2,066.9% in the third quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC now owns 195,522 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,460,000 after purchasing an additional 186,499 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in NorthWestern by 7.5% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 318,669 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,677,000 after purchasing an additional 22,365 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.07% of the company’s stock.

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.