NorthWestern Energy Group (NYSE:NWE) Reaches New 52-Week High After Analyst Upgrade

NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:NWE) shares reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock from $58.00 to $61.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the stock. NorthWestern Energy Group traded as high as $60.76 and last traded at $60.76, with a volume of 295 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $56.99.

Several other research firms also recently issued reports on NWE. Barclays boosted their price target on NorthWestern Energy Group from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Mizuho boosted their price target on NorthWestern Energy Group from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. StockNews.com downgraded NorthWestern Energy Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Bank of America assumed coverage on NorthWestern Energy Group in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $65.00 target price for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $55.75.

Insider Transactions at NorthWestern Energy Group

In other news, Director Britt E. Ide sold 688 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.92, for a total transaction of $35,720.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 10,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $559,593.76. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.94% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,780,298 shares of the company’s stock worth $345,049,000 after buying an additional 187,619 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,968,413 shares of the company’s stock worth $198,738,000 after buying an additional 19,748 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in NorthWestern Energy Group by 0.9% in the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,128,539 shares of the company’s stock valued at $106,597,000 after purchasing an additional 19,369 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in NorthWestern Energy Group by 6.3% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,027,698 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,467,000 after purchasing an additional 61,216 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in NorthWestern Energy Group by 1.4% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 849,064 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,521,000 after purchasing an additional 12,091 shares during the last quarter. 96.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

NorthWestern Energy Group Price Performance

The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $54.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $52.26. The company has a current ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92. The firm has a market cap of $3.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.64, a PEG ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.46.

NorthWestern Energy Group (NYSE:NWE) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.05. NorthWestern Energy Group had a net margin of 14.21% and a return on equity of 7.65%. The business had revenue of $319.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $310.40 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.35 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. will post 3.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NorthWestern Energy Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.28%. NorthWestern Energy Group’s payout ratio is currently 80.50%.

About NorthWestern Energy Group

NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc provides electricity and natural gas to residential, commercial, and various industrial customers. It generates, purchases, transmits, and distributes electricity; and produces, purchases, stores, transmits, and distributes natural gas, as well as owns municipal franchises to provide natural gas service in the communities.