North West (TSE:NWC) Hits New 12-Month High – Should You Buy?

The North West Company Inc. (TSE:NWC) shares hit a new 52-week high on Wednesday. The company traded as high as C$57.20 and last traded at C$56.50, with a volume of 66,827 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at C$56.47.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce lifted their price objective on North West from C$58.00 to C$62.00 and gave the company an “outperformer” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and three have given a Buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, North West currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of C$60.67.

North West Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 57.00, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 0.64. The firm has a market cap of C$2.69 billion, a PE ratio of 19.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 0.06. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of C$52.24 and a 200 day simple moving average of C$51.41.

North West (TSE:NWC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, September 8th. The company reported C$0.76 earnings per share for the quarter. North West had a net margin of 5.40% and a return on equity of 17.50%. The firm had revenue of C$681.96 million for the quarter. As a group, equities analysts expect that The North West Company Inc. will post 3.49 EPS for the current year.

North West Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 15th were issued a $0.42 dividend. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. This is a boost from North West’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.41. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 29th. North West’s dividend payout ratio is currently 56.16%.

About North West

The North West Company Inc, through its subsidiaries, is a leading retailer of food and everyday products and services to rural communities and urban neighbourhoods in Canada, Alaska, the South Pacific and the Caribbean. North West operates 230 stores under the trading names Northern, NorthMart, Giant Tiger, Alaska Commercial Company, Cost-U-Less and RiteWay Food Markets and has annualized sales of approximately CDN$2.6 billion.