NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the six analysts that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have assigned a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $70.10.

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on NWE shares. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of NorthWestern in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on NorthWestern from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised shares of NorthWestern from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $56.00 to $75.50 in a report on Wednesday, April 1st. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $54.00 price objective on shares of NorthWestern in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on NorthWestern from $62.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 20th.

Institutional Trading of NorthWestern

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of NWE. State Street Corp raised its position in NorthWestern by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,637,718 shares of the company’s stock worth $170,238,000 after purchasing an additional 14,751 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in NorthWestern by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,436,750 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,728,000 after purchasing an additional 98,472 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in shares of NorthWestern by 65.6% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,222,376 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,708,000 after acquiring an additional 484,266 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in NorthWestern by 69.7% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,147,269 shares of the company’s stock worth $67,241,000 after buying an additional 471,125 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of NorthWestern by 0.6% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,023,230 shares of the company’s stock valued at $67,472,000 after buying an additional 5,815 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.07% of the company’s stock.

NorthWestern Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of NASDAQ NWE opened at $72.91 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $4.48 billion, a PE ratio of 26.81, a P/E/G ratio of 3.87 and a beta of 0.34. NorthWestern has a 52-week low of $51.31 and a 52-week high of $75.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a current ratio of 0.70. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $70.93 and its 200-day moving average price is $69.23.

NorthWestern (NASDAQ:NWE) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $1.31 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.02. NorthWestern had a return on equity of 7.80% and a net margin of 10.21%.The business had revenue of $516.60 million for the quarter. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.22 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that NorthWestern will post 3.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NorthWestern Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.7%. NorthWestern’s payout ratio is 98.53%.

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.