Black Hills Co. (BKH) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.65 on December 1st

Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, October 28th, NASDAQ reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be paid a dividend of 0.65 per share by the utilities provider on Sunday, December 1st. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.34%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th.

Black Hills has increased its dividend payment by an average of 4.8% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 54 consecutive years. Black Hills has a payout ratio of 63.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Black Hills to earn $4.14 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 62.8%.

Black Hills Trading Down 0.7 %

NYSE:BKH opened at $59.93 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $60.06 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $57.16. The firm has a market cap of $4.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.69. Black Hills has a 52 week low of $47.49 and a 52 week high of $62.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 1.06.

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.04. Black Hills had a net margin of 12.96% and a return on equity of 8.21%. The company had revenue of $402.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $498.00 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.35 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Black Hills will post 3.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BKH has been the subject of a number of research reports. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Black Hills from $54.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Black Hills from $61.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have issued a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $58.00.

Black Hills Company Profile

Black Hills Corporation, through its subsidiaries, operates as an electric and natural gas utility company in the United States. The company operates in two segments: Electric Utilities and Gas Utilities. The Electric Utilities segment generates, transmits, and distributes electricity to approximately 222,000 electric utility customers in Colorado, Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming; and owns and operates 1,394 megawatts of generation capacity and 9,106 miles of electric transmission and distribution lines.