Franklin Resources Inc. Acquires 98,472 Shares of NorthWestern Corporation $NWE

Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE) by 7.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,436,750 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 98,472 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc.’s holdings in NorthWestern were worth $92,728,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Signaturefd LLC grew its position in NorthWestern by 28.5% during the fourth quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 879 shares of the company’s stock valued at $57,000 after acquiring an additional 195 shares during the last quarter. Strs Ohio boosted its stake in shares of NorthWestern by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 18,800 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,213,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of NorthWestern by 34.3% during the second quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 845 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the period. Advisory Services Network LLC lifted its stake in NorthWestern by 3.4% in the third quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 6,763 shares of the company’s stock worth $396,000 after acquiring an additional 224 shares during the period. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its stake in NorthWestern by 31.1% in the third quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,074 shares of the company’s stock worth $63,000 after acquiring an additional 255 shares during the period. 96.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on NorthWestern from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Barclays raised their price target on NorthWestern from $62.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Wall Street Zen raised NorthWestern to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 25th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised NorthWestern from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $56.00 to $75.50 in a research note on Wednesday, April 1st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on NorthWestern from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, NorthWestern currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $68.30.

NorthWestern Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NWE opened at $69.72 on Thursday. NorthWestern Corporation has a 1-year low of $50.46 and a 1-year high of $75.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.52. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $70.66 and a 200-day moving average price of $68.41. The company has a market capitalization of $4.29 billion, a PE ratio of 25.63, a PEG ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 0.34.

NorthWestern (NASDAQ:NWE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $1.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.02. NorthWestern had a return on equity of 7.80% and a net margin of 10.21%.The firm had revenue of $516.60 million during the quarter. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.22 earnings per share. NorthWestern’s revenue was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that NorthWestern Corporation will post 3.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NorthWestern Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th will be issued a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 15th. NorthWestern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.