Wedge Capital Management L L P NC Acquires 13,659 Shares of NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:NWE)

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its holdings in NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:NWE) by 9.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 163,424 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 13,659 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC owned about 0.27% of NorthWestern Energy Group worth $8,317,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Foundry Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group by 60.8% in the 4th quarter. Foundry Partners LLC now owns 8,585 shares of the company’s stock worth $437,000 after buying an additional 3,245 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its holdings in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group by 499.5% in the 4th quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,127 shares of the company’s stock worth $57,000 after buying an additional 939 shares during the last quarter. Xponance Inc. increased its holdings in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 8,863 shares of the company’s stock worth $451,000 after buying an additional 219 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its stake in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group by 451.5% during the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 46,371 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,360,000 after purchasing an additional 37,963 shares during the period. Finally, River Road Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group by 35.0% during the 4th quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 2,168,217 shares of the company’s stock worth $110,341,000 after purchasing an additional 562,548 shares during the period. 96.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on NWE shares. StockNews.com raised shares of NorthWestern Energy Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on NorthWestern Energy Group from $53.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Guggenheim upgraded shares of NorthWestern Energy Group from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $47.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, January 22nd. KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating on shares of NorthWestern Energy Group in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of NorthWestern Energy Group from $48.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $51.71.

NorthWestern Energy Group Stock Performance

Shares of NWE stock opened at $50.45 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $3.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.41 and a beta of 0.43. The company’s 50 day moving average is $49.20 and its 200 day moving average is $49.48. The company has a quick ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97. NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. has a 52-week low of $45.97 and a 52-week high of $60.56.

NorthWestern Energy Group (NYSE:NWE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The company reported $1.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $356.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $443.27 million. NorthWestern Energy Group had a net margin of 13.64% and a return on equity of 7.23%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.13 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. will post 3.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NorthWestern Energy Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.15%. This is an increase from NorthWestern Energy Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.64. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. NorthWestern Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 80.75%.

NorthWestern Energy Group Profile

NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc provides electricity and natural gas to residential, commercial, and various industrial customers. It generates, purchases, transmits, and distributes electricity; and produces, purchases, stores, transmits, and distributes natural gas, as well as owns municipal franchises to provide natural gas service in the communities.