NorthWestern Corporation $NWE Shares Bought by Bank of America Corp DE

Key Points

• Bank of America increased its NorthWestern stake by 4.8% in the first quarter, holding 803,467 shares valued at approximately $53.0 million. Institutional investors collectively own 96.07% of the company.
• NorthWestern reported quarterly EPS of $0.50, beating estimates by $0.08, while revenue rose 14.6% year over year to $392.6 million. The company expects full-year EPS of approximately $3.75.
• The utility declared a quarterly dividend of $0.67, equivalent to an annualized $2.68 payout and a 3.8% yield. Analysts maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus with an average price target of $73.30.

Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in shares of NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE - Free Report) by 4.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 803,467 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 36,747 shares during the quarter. Bank of America Corp DE owned approximately 1.31% of NorthWestern worth $52,981,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in NWE. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 14,751 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in NorthWestern by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,436,750 shares of the company's stock valued at $92,728,000 after buying an additional 98,472 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in NorthWestern by 69.7% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,147,269 shares of the company's stock valued at $67,241,000 after buying an additional 471,125 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in NorthWestern by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,023,230 shares of the company's stock worth $67,472,000 after buying an additional 5,815 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in NorthWestern by 5,851.3% during the 4th quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,005,886 shares of the company's stock worth $64,920,000 after buying an additional 988,984 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.07% of the company's stock.

NorthWestern Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NWE opened at $70.65 on Wednesday. NorthWestern Corporation has a 1-year low of $54.89 and a 1-year high of $75.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.58. The business's fifty day moving average price is $70.92 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $69.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.35 billion, a PE ratio of 25.51, a P/E/G ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 0.34.

NorthWestern (NASDAQ:NWE - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $392.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $386.22 million. NorthWestern had a net margin of 10.13% and a return on equity of 8.03%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 14.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.40 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that NorthWestern Corporation will post 3.75 EPS for the current year.

NorthWestern Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Investors of record on Monday, August 17th will be issued a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 17th. NorthWestern's dividend payout ratio is 96.75%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on NWE shares. Barclays raised their price objective on NorthWestern from $62.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of NorthWestern from a "buy (b)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of NorthWestern to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, April 25th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of NorthWestern from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of NorthWestern from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $73.30.

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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