Van Diest Capital LLC Takes Position in NorthWestern Corporation $NWE

Van Diest Capital LLC acquired a new position in NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 7,330 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $483,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in NorthWestern by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,637,718 shares of the company’s stock worth $170,238,000 after acquiring an additional 14,751 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in shares of NorthWestern by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,436,750 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,728,000 after purchasing an additional 98,472 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in NorthWestern by 65.6% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,222,376 shares of the company’s stock worth $62,708,000 after purchasing an additional 484,266 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in NorthWestern by 69.7% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,147,269 shares of the company’s stock worth $67,241,000 after purchasing an additional 471,125 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in NorthWestern by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,023,230 shares of the company’s stock worth $67,472,000 after purchasing an additional 5,815 shares during the last quarter. 96.07% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on NWE. Barclays raised their price target on shares of NorthWestern from $62.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 20th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised shares of NorthWestern from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $56.00 to $75.50 in a report on Wednesday, April 1st. Wall Street Zen raised NorthWestern to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 25th. Weiss Ratings upgraded NorthWestern from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $54.00 price target on shares of NorthWestern in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Three equities 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $70.10.

NorthWestern Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NWE opened at $72.86 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $71.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $69.63. The stock has a market cap of $4.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.79, a PEG ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 0.34. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10. NorthWestern Corporation has a 12 month low of $51.92 and a 12 month high of $75.18.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates 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 earned $1.22 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that NorthWestern Corporation will post 3.75 earnings per share for the current year.

NorthWestern Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 15th. NorthWestern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 98.53%.

NorthWestern 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.