Financial Counselors Inc. Lowers Stake in Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH)

Financial Counselors Inc. reduced its stake in Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) by 0.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 53,999 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 392 shares during the quarter. Financial Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Black Hills were worth $3,160,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of BKH. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC boosted its stake in Black Hills by 46.5% in the 4th quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 35,056 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,051,000 after purchasing an additional 11,120 shares in the last quarter. Barnett & Company Inc. raised its holdings in Black Hills by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Barnett & Company Inc. now owns 7,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $439,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Black Hills by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,602,223 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $503,402,000 after purchasing an additional 37,790 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC boosted its position in shares of Black Hills by 11.7% during the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 32,591 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,907,000 after buying an additional 3,422 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fox Run Management L.L.C. increased its holdings in Black Hills by 127.5% in the 4th quarter. Fox Run Management L.L.C. now owns 12,205 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $714,000 after buying an additional 6,841 shares in the last quarter. 86.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Scotiabank lowered their target price on shares of Black Hills from $67.00 to $66.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th.

Black Hills Trading Up 0.2 %

Black Hills stock opened at $59.62 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. The company has a market cap of $4.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.21, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.68. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $59.65 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $60.08. Black Hills Co. has a 52-week low of $50.73 and a 52-week high of $65.59.

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.17. Black Hills had a return on equity of 7.82% and a net margin of 12.84%. Analysts predict that Black Hills Co. will post 4.12 EPS for the current year.

Black Hills Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were paid a dividend of $0.676 per share. This is a boost from Black Hills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.54%. Black Hills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.88%.

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.