Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Sells 14,178 Shares of NorthWestern Corporation $NWE

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio lessened its stake in NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE) by 47.7% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 15,517 shares of the company’s stock after selling 14,178 shares during the quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio’s holdings in NorthWestern were worth $1,023,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Allworth Financial LP lifted its position in shares of NorthWestern by 263.3% during the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 436 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 316 shares in the last quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd raised its position in NorthWestern by 3,221.4% in the 3rd quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 465 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 451 shares during the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc raised its position in NorthWestern by 142.0% in the 4th quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 455 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares during the last quarter. PenderFund Capital Management Ltd. bought a new position in NorthWestern in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $37,000. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its holdings in NorthWestern by 34.3% during the 2nd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 845 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. 96.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

NorthWestern Price Performance

Shares of NWE stock opened at $68.90 on Tuesday. NorthWestern Corporation has a 52-week low of $53.55 and a 52-week high of $75.18. The stock has a market cap of $4.24 billion, a PE ratio of 24.87, a PEG ratio of 3.63 and a beta of 0.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.83. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $70.94 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $69.84.

NorthWestern (NASDAQ:NWE) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $392.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $386.22 million. NorthWestern had a net margin of 10.13% and a return on equity of 8.03%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.40 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that NorthWestern Corporation will post 3.75 EPS for the current year.

NorthWestern Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Investors of record on Monday, August 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 17th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.9%. NorthWestern’s payout ratio is 96.75%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on NWE. Weiss Ratings lowered NorthWestern from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Thursday. Barclays boosted their target price on NorthWestern from $62.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Wall Street Zen raised NorthWestern to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised 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. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on NorthWestern from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NorthWestern has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $73.30.

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.