Legal & General Group Plc Decreases Stake in Otter Tail Corporation $OTTR

Legal & General Group Plc lowered its position in shares of Otter Tail Corporation (NASDAQ:OTTR) by 6.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 103,327 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 7,024 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.25% of Otter Tail worth $8,350,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of OTTR. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Otter Tail in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,115,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in Otter Tail by 77.3% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 605,504 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $49,633,000 after buying an additional 264,009 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Otter Tail by 17.8% in the third quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,464,613 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $120,054,000 after purchasing an additional 221,039 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its stake in shares of Otter Tail by 27.5% in the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 182,086 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $14,926,000 after purchasing an additional 39,226 shares during the period. Finally, LSV Asset Management boosted its stake in shares of Otter Tail by 183.2% in the third quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 169,072 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $13,859,000 after purchasing an additional 109,372 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on OTTR. KeyCorp reaffirmed a “sector weight” rating on shares of Otter Tail in a report on Monday. Siebert Williams Shank cut shares of Otter Tail from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $86.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “reduce” rating on shares of Otter Tail in a report on Friday, May 29th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Otter Tail from a “hold (c)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Otter Tail from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $86.00.

Otter Tail Price Performance

Otter Tail stock opened at $86.77 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $87.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $86.06. Otter Tail Corporation has a 52 week low of $74.15 and a 52 week high of $92.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.64 billion, a PE ratio of 13.01 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.64, a current ratio of 2.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56.

Otter Tail (NASDAQ:OTTR) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.42 by $0.31. Otter Tail had a net margin of 21.34% and a return on equity of 15.21%. The firm had revenue of $347.03 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $339.10 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.62 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Otter Tail Corporation will post 5.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Otter Tail Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th will be paid a $0.5775 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 15th. This represents a $2.31 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. Otter Tail’s payout ratio is presently 34.63%.

Otter Tail Profile

Otter Tail Corporation, through its primary subsidiary Otter Tail Power Company, is a regulated electric utility engaged in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity. The company operates a diversified portfolio of owned and contracted power generation facilities, including coal, natural gas, wind and hydroelectric units, supplemented by long-term power purchase agreements. In addition to utility operations, Otter Tail provides related engineering, construction and maintenance services to support grid reliability and efficiency.

The company’s service territory covers a predominantly rural footprint in the Upper Midwest, including communities in west-central Minnesota, eastern North Dakota, northwest Wisconsin and small portions of South Dakota.