Fifth Third Bancorp Buys 67,350 Shares of NorthWestern Corporation $NWE

Key Points

• Fifth Third Bancorp dramatically increased its NorthWestern stake in Q1, buying 67,350 shares and lifting its position by 11,652.2% to 67,928 shares worth about $4.48 million.
• NorthWestern has seen mixed analyst sentiment, with recent target hikes from Barclays and Ladenburg Thalm/SH SH, but the overall consensus remains Hold with a $70.10 price target.
• The utility reported solid recent results, including Q1 EPS of $1.31 topping estimates and revenue up 6.6% year over year, while also paying a quarterly dividend that implies a 3.7% annual yield.

Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its stake in shares of NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE - Free Report) by 11,652.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 67,928 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 67,350 shares during the quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp owned about 0.11% of NorthWestern worth $4,479,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp raised its holdings in NorthWestern by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,637,718 shares of the company's stock valued at $170,238,000 after acquiring an additional 14,751 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of NorthWestern by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,436,750 shares of the company's stock worth $92,728,000 after acquiring an additional 98,472 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in shares of NorthWestern by 65.6% during the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,222,376 shares of the company's stock worth $62,708,000 after acquiring an additional 484,266 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of NorthWestern by 69.7% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,147,269 shares of the company's stock valued at $67,241,000 after purchasing an additional 471,125 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of NorthWestern by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,017,415 shares of the company's stock valued at $65,664,000 after purchasing an additional 7,056 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.07% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on NWE shares. Barclays lifted their price target on NorthWestern from $62.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, April 20th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an "underweight" rating and set a $54.00 price objective on shares of NorthWestern in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Weiss Ratings raised NorthWestern from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "buy (b)" rating in a report on Wednesday. Wall Street Zen raised NorthWestern to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, April 25th. Finally, LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised shares of NorthWestern from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $56.00 to $75.50 in a research report on Wednesday, April 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NorthWestern currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $70.10.

NorthWestern Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NWE opened at $72.06 on Friday. NorthWestern Corporation has a twelve month low of $51.92 and a twelve month high of $75.18. The company has a quick ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $70.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $69.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.43 billion, a PE ratio of 26.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.80 and a beta of 0.34.

NorthWestern (NASDAQ:NWE - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $1.31 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $516.60 million during the quarter. NorthWestern had a return on equity of 7.80% and a net margin of 10.21%.The firm's revenue was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.22 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that NorthWestern Corporation will post 3.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NorthWestern Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th were given a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.7%. NorthWestern's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 98.53%.

NorthWestern 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.

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