Otter Tail (NASDAQ:OTTR) Share Price Crosses Above 200 Day Moving Average – Time to Sell?

Shares of Otter Tail Corporation (NASDAQ:OTTR) passed above its two hundred day moving average during trading on Monday . The stock has a two hundred day moving average of $83.62 and traded as high as $86.92. Otter Tail shares last traded at $85.73, with a volume of 233,856 shares traded.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Weiss Ratings lowered Otter Tail from a “buy (b)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Otter Tail presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $83.00.

Otter Tail Trading Up 0.5%

The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $86.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $83.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 2.28 and a quick ratio of 1.83. The stock has a market cap of $3.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.45 and a beta of 0.50.

Otter Tail (NASDAQ:OTTR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 17th. The utilities provider reported $1.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.16 by $0.07. Otter Tail had a net margin of 21.16% and a return on equity of 15.36%. The company had revenue of $308.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $311.15 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.30 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Otter Tail Corporation will post 5.88 EPS for the current year.

Otter Tail Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 13th were paid a dividend of $0.5775 per share. This represents a $2.31 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.6%. This is a boost from Otter Tail’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 13th. Otter Tail’s payout ratio is 35.21%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of OTTR. First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Otter Tail by 17.8% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,464,613 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $120,054,000 after acquiring an additional 221,039 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Otter Tail by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,019,262 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $82,385,000 after acquiring an additional 4,164 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Otter Tail by 77.3% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 605,504 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $49,633,000 after acquiring an additional 264,009 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management boosted its holdings in shares of Otter Tail by 217.6% during the 4th quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 536,941 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $43,390,000 after purchasing an additional 367,869 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake 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 worth $31,542,000 after buying an additional 98,243 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.32% of the company’s stock.

Otter Tail Company 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.