Martin Capital Partners LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Black Hills Corporation $BKH

Martin Capital Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Black Hills Corporation (NYSE:BKH) by 17.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 124,490 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 18,454 shares during the period. Black Hills makes up approximately 3.0% of Martin Capital Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest position. Martin Capital Partners LLC owned about 0.17% of Black Hills worth $7,667,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Spire Wealth Management lifted its holdings in Black Hills by 4,115.4% during the 2nd quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 548 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 535 shares during the last quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. acquired a new position in Black Hills in the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in Black Hills during the 2nd quarter worth $43,000. Hilltop National Bank bought a new position in Black Hills during the 2nd quarter worth $50,000. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Black Hills by 44.0% during the second quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,037 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $58,000 after buying an additional 317 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on BKH. Bank of America upgraded shares of Black Hills from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $57.00 to $64.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 20th. Scotiabank upgraded shares of Black Hills from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $81.00 in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Black Hills in a report on Monday, December 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Black Hills presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $71.00.

Black Hills Trading Down 0.8%

Shares of Black Hills stock opened at $72.03 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10. Black Hills Corporation has a 12-month low of $54.92 and a 12-month high of $74.02. The company has a market capitalization of $5.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.19, a PEG ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 0.74. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $67.66 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $61.67.

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45. The company had revenue of $430.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $439.96 million. Black Hills had a net margin of 12.54% and a return on equity of 7.86%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.35 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Black Hills Corporation will post 4.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Black Hills Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 17th were issued a $0.676 dividend. This represents a $2.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 17th. Black Hills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 68.18%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Kimberly F. Nooney sold 14,500 shares of Black Hills stock in a transaction on Monday, November 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.70, for a total value of $1,025,150.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 34,621 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,447,704.70. This trade represents a 29.52% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.63% of the company’s stock.

About Black Hills

Black Hills Corporation, through its subsidiaries, operates as an electric and natural gas utility company in the United States. The company operates in two segments: Electric Utilities and Gas Utilities. The Electric Utilities segment generates, transmits, and distributes electricity to approximately 222,000 electric utility customers in Colorado, Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming; and owns and operates 1,394 megawatts of generation capacity and 9,106 miles of electric transmission and distribution lines.