NorthWestern (NASDAQ:NWE) Sets New 52-Week High - Still a Buy?

Key Points

• New 52-week high: NorthWestern shares reached $72.91 (last $72.12), trading above the Street’s average price target of $64.10 despite a mixed analyst consensus of "Hold" — some firms (e.g., Ladenburg) upgraded to Buy with a $75.50 target.
• Q4 results showed a slight EPS miss ($1.17 vs. $1.19) while revenue grew 10.9%; the company has a market cap of $4.47B and a P/E of 24.7, and it pays a quarterly dividend of $0.67 (annual yield ~3.7%) with a high payout ratio (~91%).
• Institutional buying surged in Q4 — large increases from Balyasny, Millennium, UBS and others — leaving roughly 96.07% of the stock held by institutional investors.

NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE - Get Free Report)'s stock price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $72.91 and last traded at $72.1190, with a volume of 346560 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $68.94.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NWE has been the subject of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of NorthWestern from $53.00 to $52.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of NorthWestern from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised shares of NorthWestern from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price target for the company from $56.00 to $75.50 in a research note on Wednesday, April 1st. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "buy (b)" rating on shares of NorthWestern in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of NorthWestern from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $64.10.

NorthWestern Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 0.53. The company's 50-day moving average price is $68.30 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $65.59. The company has a market capitalization of $4.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.69, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 0.32.

NorthWestern (NASDAQ:NWE - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported $1.17 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.19 by ($0.02). NorthWestern had a return on equity of 7.62% and a net margin of 11.24%.The firm had revenue of $414.26 million for the quarter. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.13 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% compared to the same quarter last year.

NorthWestern Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th were issued a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.7%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 13th. NorthWestern's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 91.16%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NorthWestern

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of NWE. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. grew its holdings in NorthWestern by 5,851.3% in the fourth quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,005,886 shares of the company's stock worth $64,920,000 after purchasing an additional 988,984 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC grew its holdings in NorthWestern by 1,214.4% in the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 920,554 shares of the company's stock worth $59,413,000 after purchasing an additional 850,517 shares during the period. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. acquired a new stake in NorthWestern in the fourth quarter worth $52,439,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in NorthWestern in the fourth quarter worth $50,274,000. Finally, UBS Group AG grew its holdings in NorthWestern by 479.9% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 707,822 shares of the company's stock worth $45,683,000 after purchasing an additional 585,768 shares during the period. 96.07% of the stock is currently 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.

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