NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the six analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $73.30.

Several brokerages recently weighed in on NWE. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of NorthWestern from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on NorthWestern from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded NorthWestern from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th.

Institutional Trading of NorthWestern

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of NWE. Allworth Financial LP grew its holdings 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 buying an additional 316 shares during the last quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd raised its stake in shares of NorthWestern by 3,221.4% during the third 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 lifted its holdings in shares of NorthWestern by 142.0% during the fourth quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 455 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares during the period. PenderFund Capital Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of NorthWestern in the 3rd quarter worth $37,000. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of NorthWestern by 34.3% in the second quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 845 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.07% of the company’s stock.

NorthWestern Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NWE opened at $70.19 on Thursday. 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 company has a fifty day moving average of $71.13 and a two-hundred day moving average of $70.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.32 billion, a PE ratio of 25.34, a P/E/G ratio of 3.70 and a beta of 0.34. NorthWestern has a fifty-two week low of $55.50 and a fifty-two week high of $75.18.

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

NorthWestern Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Investors of record on Monday, August 17th were given a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 17th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.8%. NorthWestern’s dividend payout ratio is 96.75%.

About NorthWestern

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.