NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the six brokerages that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $73.30.

Several research firms recently weighed in on NWE. Weiss Ratings cut shares of NorthWestern from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Wall Street Zen raised NorthWestern to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 25th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on NorthWestern from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on NorthWestern from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on NorthWestern from $62.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 20th.

NorthWestern Price Performance

NorthWestern stock opened at $72.09 on Friday. NorthWestern has a one year low of $54.89 and a one year high of $75.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.58. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $70.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $69.89. The company has a market capitalization of $4.43 billion, a PE ratio of 26.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 0.34.

NorthWestern (NASDAQ:NWE) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $392.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $386.22 million. NorthWestern had a return on equity of 8.03% and a net margin of 10.13%.NorthWestern’s revenue was up 14.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.40 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that NorthWestern will post 3.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NorthWestern Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 17th will be issued 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 is Monday, August 17th. NorthWestern’s payout ratio is currently 96.75%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of NWE. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in NorthWestern by 5,851.3% in the fourth quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,005,886 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,920,000 after buying an additional 988,984 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC grew its holdings in NorthWestern by 1,214.4% during the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 920,554 shares of the company’s stock worth $59,413,000 after acquiring an additional 850,517 shares during the period. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. acquired a new stake in NorthWestern during the 4th quarter worth $52,439,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of NorthWestern during the 4th quarter valued at $50,274,000. Finally, Caxton Associates LLP bought a new stake in shares of NorthWestern during the 1st quarter valued at $43,340,000. Institutional investors 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.