NorthWestern (NASDAQ:NWE) Sees Unusually-High Trading Volume – Here’s Why

Shares of NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE) saw an uptick in trading volume on Friday . 404,963 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 6% from the previous session’s volume of 432,384 shares.The stock last traded at $67.47 and had previously closed at $67.71.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on NWE. Barclays raised shares of NorthWestern to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of NorthWestern in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company downgraded NorthWestern from an “equal weight” rating to a “strong sell” rating and set a $53.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Tuesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $54.50.

NorthWestern Stock Down 2.3%

The company has a market capitalization of $4.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.74, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.65. The business’s 50 day moving average is $66.18 and its 200 day moving average is $60.32.

NorthWestern (NASDAQ:NWE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $386.95 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $380.96 million. NorthWestern had a net margin of 13.82% and a return on equity of 7.56%.

About NorthWestern

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.