Black Hills Co. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.65 (NYSE:BKH)

Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, April 22nd, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a dividend of 0.65 per share by the utilities provider on Saturday, June 1st. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.80%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th.

Black Hills has increased its dividend by an average of 4.8% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 1 years. Black Hills has a dividend payout ratio of 63.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings.

Black Hills Price Performance

Black Hills stock traded down $0.17 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $54.20. The stock had a trading volume of 60,169 shares, compared to its average volume of 541,052. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.81 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $52.79 and its 200 day moving average is $52.18. Black Hills has a one year low of $46.43 and a one year high of $66.85.

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The utilities provider reported $1.17 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.06 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $591.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $863.67 million. Black Hills had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 8.09%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.11 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Black Hills will post 3.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on BKH. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Black Hills from $61.00 to $57.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 9th. Scotiabank lowered their target price on shares of Black Hills from $58.00 to $54.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Black Hills from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and four have issued a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Black Hills currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $55.00.

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.