Magellan Asset Management Ltd Boosts Stock Position in NorthWestern Corporation $NWE

Magellan Asset Management Ltd raised its holdings in NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE) by 25.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 65,874 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 13,464 shares during the quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd owned approximately 0.11% of NorthWestern worth $4,344,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of NWE. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in NorthWestern by 7.5% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 318,669 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,677,000 after buying an additional 22,365 shares in the last quarter. UBS Group AG grew its stake in NorthWestern by 479.9% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 707,822 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,683,000 after acquiring an additional 585,768 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in NorthWestern by 536.6% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 26,325 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,699,000 after acquiring an additional 22,190 shares in the last quarter. Passumpsic Savings Bank purchased a new position in shares of NorthWestern during the fourth quarter worth approximately $720,000. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp increased its position in shares of NorthWestern by 11,652.2% during the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 67,928 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,479,000 after acquiring an additional 67,350 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NWE has been the subject of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on NorthWestern from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 9th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded NorthWestern from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $56.00 to $75.50 in a report on Wednesday, April 1st. Wall Street Zen raised NorthWestern to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 25th. Weiss Ratings upgraded NorthWestern from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $54.00 target price on shares of NorthWestern in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NorthWestern has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $70.10.

NorthWestern Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of NorthWestern stock opened at $71.80 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $70.99 and its 200-day moving average price is $69.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10. NorthWestern Corporation has a 52-week low of $51.92 and a 52-week high of $75.18. The company has a market cap of $4.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.40, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 0.34.

NorthWestern (NASDAQ:NWE) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $1.31 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $516.60 million during the quarter. NorthWestern had a net margin of 10.21% and a return on equity of 7.80%. The company’s revenue was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.22 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict 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 was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.7%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. NorthWestern’s dividend payout ratio is currently 98.53%.

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.