NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE) Receives $68.30 Consensus PT from Analysts

Shares of NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE) have earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the six research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have assigned a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $68.30.

Several research firms recently weighed in on NWE. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on NorthWestern from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of NorthWestern in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $54.00 price objective on shares of NorthWestern in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised NorthWestern from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $56.00 to $75.50 in a report on Wednesday, April 1st. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on NorthWestern from $62.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 20th.

NorthWestern Trading Up 2.8%

NASDAQ NWE opened at $73.42 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10. NorthWestern has a twelve month low of $50.54 and a twelve month high of $75.18. The company has a market cap of $4.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 0.34. The business’s fifty day moving average is $70.97 and its 200 day moving average is $68.70.

NorthWestern (NASDAQ:NWE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $1.31 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $516.60 million for the quarter. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.22 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that NorthWestern will post 3.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NorthWestern Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.7%. NorthWestern’s payout ratio is presently 98.53%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of NWE. Millennium Management LLC acquired a new position in NorthWestern during the 1st quarter worth about $5,708,000. United Services Automobile Association acquired a new position in NorthWestern during the 1st quarter worth about $220,000. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its holdings in NorthWestern by 13.5% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 154,776 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,957,000 after buying an additional 18,454 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in NorthWestern during the 2nd quarter worth about $230,000. Finally, Schnieders Capital Management LLC. lifted its holdings in NorthWestern by 19.5% during the 2nd quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. now owns 23,123 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,186,000 after buying an additional 3,775 shares during the period. 96.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.