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

Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, April 22nd, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of 0.65 per share by the utilities provider on Saturday, June 1st. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.78%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th.

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

Black Hills Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:BKH remained flat at $54.37 during midday trading on Wednesday. The stock had a trading volume of 81,002 shares, compared to its average volume of 541,350. The company has a market capitalization of $3.71 billion, a PE 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. Black Hills has a fifty-two week low of $46.43 and a fifty-two week high of $66.85. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $52.79 and a 200 day simple moving average of $52.18.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

About Black Hills

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.