NorthWestern (NWE) Stock Price, News & Analysis

Company Overview

NorthWestern Corporation, doing business as NorthWestern Energy, is a regulated electric and natural gas utility serving customers in Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska. The company provides essential energy services to residential, commercial, industrial and governmental customers across its service territories.

NorthWestern Energy’s operations include electricity generation, transmission and distribution, as well as natural gas transmission, storage and distribution. Its generation portfolio includes a mix of owned facilities and purchased power, with resources that include hydroelectric, coal, natural gas and renewable energy.

The company traces its roots to 1923 and is headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. NorthWestern Energy operates as a vertically integrated utility in portions of its service area, managing infrastructure and energy delivery systems intended to provide reliable service across the Upper Midwest and Northern Plains. Brian Bird serves as president and chief executive officer.

Key Stats

• Today's Range: $68.12 to $69.14
• 50-Day Range: $67.98 to $73.27
• 52-Week Range: $55.53 to $75.18
• Volume: 408,391 shs
• Average Volume: 498,303 shs
• Market Capitalization: $4.22 billion
• P/E Ratio: 24.74
• Dividend Yield: 3.91%
• Price Target: $72.70
• Consensus Rating: Moderate Buy

NorthWestern Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

NorthWestern scored higher than 61% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 69th out of 96 stocks in the utilities sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

Analyst's Opinion

• Score: 2.3 / 5
• Analyst Rating: Moderate Buy

Consensus Rating

NorthWestern has received a consensus rating of Moderate Buy. The company's average rating score is 2.50, and is based on no strong buy ratings, 3 buy ratings, 3 hold ratings, and no sell ratings.

Upside/Downside

The consensus price target for NorthWestern is close to its current price, suggesting limited near-term upside or downside.

Amount of Analyst Coverage

NorthWestern has only been the subject of 3 research reports in the past 90 days.

Earnings and Valuation

• Score: 1.3 / 5
• Proj. Earnings Growth: 6.68%

Earnings Growth

Earnings for NorthWestern are expected to grow by 6.68% in the coming year, from $3.74 to $3.99 per share.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market

The P/E ratio of NorthWestern is 24.74, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 38.86.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

The P/E ratio of NorthWestern is 24.74, which means that it is trading at a more expensive P/E ratio than the Utilities sector average P/E ratio of about 24.06.

Price to Earnings Growth Ratio

NorthWestern has a PEG Ratio of 3.63. PEG Ratios above 1 indicate that a company could be overvalued.

Price to Book Value per Share Ratio

NorthWestern has a P/B Ratio of 1.46. P/B Ratios below 3 indicates that a company is reasonably valued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

Short Interest

• Score: 2.0 / 5
• Short Interest Level: Bearish

Percentage of Shares Shorted

3.00% of the float of NorthWestern has been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

NorthWestern has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 5.18.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in NorthWestern has recently increased by 15.17%, indicating that investor sentiment is decreasing significantly.

Dividend

• Score: 4.2 / 5
• Dividend Strength: Strong

Dividend Leadership

NorthWestern is a leading dividend payer. It pays a dividend yield of 3.90%, putting its dividend yield in the top 25% of dividend-paying stocks.

Dividend Growth

NorthWestern has been increasing its dividend for 21 years.

Dividend Coverage

The dividend payout ratio of NorthWestern is 96.75%. Payout ratios above 75% are not desirable because they may not be sustainable.

Dividend Sustainability

Based on earnings estimates, NorthWestern will have a dividend payout ratio of 67.17% next year. This indicates that NorthWestern will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.

News and Social Media

• Score: 3.3 / 5
• News Sentiment: 0.26

News Sentiment

NorthWestern has a news sentiment score of 0.26. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This is a lower news sentiment than the 0.65 average news sentiment score of Utilities companies.

News Coverage This Week

MarketBeat has tracked 4 news articles for NorthWestern this week, compared to 2 articles on an average week.

Search Interest

6 people have searched for NWE on MarketBeat in the last 30 days. This is an increase of 100% compared to the previous 30 days.

MarketBeat Follows

1 people have added NorthWestern to their MarketBeat watchlist in the last 30 days.

Company Ownership

• Score: 0.7 / 5
• Insider Trading: N/A

Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

In the past three months, NorthWestern insiders have not sold or bought any company stock.

Percentage Held by Insiders

0.57% of the stock of NorthWestern is held by insiders.

Percentage Held by Institutions

96.07% of the stock of NorthWestern is held by institutions. High institutional ownership can be a signal of strong market trust in this company.

Company Calendar

• Record date for 6/30 Dividend: 6/15/2026
• Ex-Dividend for 6/30 Dividend: 6/15/2026
• Dividend Payable: 6/30/2026
• Last Earnings: 7/29/2026
• Record date for 9/1 Dividend: 8/17/2026
• Ex-Dividend for 9/1 Dividend: 8/17/2026
• Dividend Payable: 9/01/2026
• Today: 9/16/2026
• Fiscal Year End: 12/31/2026

Industry, Sector and Symbol

• Stock Exchange: NASDAQ
• Sector: Utilities
• Industry: Multi - Utilities
• Sub-Industry: Multi-Utilities
• Current Symbol: NASDAQ:NWE
• Previous Symbol: NASDAQ:NWE
• CIK: 1993004
• Web: www.northwesternenergy.com
• Phone: (605) 978-2900
• Fax: N/A
• Employees: 1,667
• Year Founded: N/A

Price Target and Rating

• Average Price Target for NorthWestern: $72.70
• High Price Target: $75.50
• Low Price Target: $70.00
• Potential Upside/Downside: +6.1%
• Consensus Rating: Moderate Buy
• Rating Score (0-4): 2.50
• Research Coverage: 6 Analysts

Profitability

• EPS (Trailing Twelve Months): $2.77
• Trailing P/E Ratio: 24.74
• Forward P/E Ratio: 18.32
• P/E Growth: 3.63
• Net Income: $181.09 million
• Net Margins: 10.13%
• Pretax Margin: 10.44%
• Return on Equity: 8.03%
• Return on Assets: 2.73%

Debt

• Debt-to-Equity Ratio: 1.19
• Current Ratio: 0.83
• Quick Ratio: 0.58

Sales & Book Value

• Annual Sales: $1.61 billion
• Price / Sales: 2.62
• Cash Flow: $7.71 per share
• Price / Cash Flow: 8.89
• Book Value: $46.99 per share
• Price / Book: 1.46

Miscellaneous

• Outstanding Shares: 61,520,000
• Free Float: 61,167,000
• Market Cap: $4.22 billion
• Optionable: N/A
• Beta: 0.34