JPMorgan Chase & Co. Raises Holdings in Otter Tail Corporation $OTTR

JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Otter Tail Corporation (NASDAQ:OTTR) by 77.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 605,504 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 264,009 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned approximately 1.44% of Otter Tail worth $49,633,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. LSV Asset Management grew its holdings in Otter Tail by 183.2% during the 3rd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 169,072 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $13,859,000 after acquiring an additional 109,372 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in shares of Otter Tail by 31.6% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 409,157 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $31,542,000 after purchasing an additional 98,243 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Otter Tail by 309.5% in the 2nd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 77,416 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,968,000 after purchasing an additional 58,511 shares during the period. HRT Financial LP bought a new position in shares of Otter Tail during the second quarter valued at approximately $3,897,000. Finally, Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Otter Tail by 168.2% during the second quarter. Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC now owns 73,695 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,681,000 after purchasing an additional 46,216 shares in the last quarter. 61.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Otter Tail in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $83.00.

Otter Tail Stock Performance

Shares of Otter Tail stock opened at $85.58 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $85.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $83.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.05 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a quick ratio of 1.83, a current ratio of 2.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. Otter Tail Corporation has a 52 week low of $71.79 and a 52 week high of $90.11.

Otter Tail (NASDAQ:OTTR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 17th. The utilities provider reported $1.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.16 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $308.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $311.15 million. Otter Tail had a net margin of 21.16% and a return on equity of 15.36%. Otter Tail’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.30 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Otter Tail Corporation will post 5.88 EPS for the current year.

Otter Tail Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 10th. Investors of record on Friday, February 13th will be paid a $0.5775 dividend. This is a positive change from Otter Tail’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 13th. This represents a $2.31 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.7%. Otter Tail’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 35.21%.

Otter Tail Profile

Otter Tail Corporation, through its primary subsidiary Otter Tail Power Company, is a regulated electric utility engaged in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity. The company operates a diversified portfolio of owned and contracted power generation facilities, including coal, natural gas, wind and hydroelectric units, supplemented by long-term power purchase agreements. In addition to utility operations, Otter Tail provides related engineering, construction and maintenance services to support grid reliability and efficiency.

The company’s service territory covers a predominantly rural footprint in the Upper Midwest, including communities in west-central Minnesota, eastern North Dakota, northwest Wisconsin and small portions of South Dakota.