Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.68 Per Share

Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 24th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of 0.676 per share by the utilities provider on Saturday, March 1st. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.70%. This is an increase from Black Hills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65.

Black Hills has raised its dividend payment by an average of 4.3% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 35 years. Black Hills has a payout ratio of 60.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Black Hills to earn $4.13 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 63.0%.

Black Hills Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of Black Hills stock opened at $57.59 on Friday. Black Hills has a 52-week low of $49.33 and a 52-week high of $65.59. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.12 billion, a PE ratio of 15.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.13 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $59.91 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $59.51.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Black Hills from $63.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, Black Hills presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $61.25.

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.