NorthWestern Energy Group (NYSE:NWE) Stock Rating Upgraded by StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of NorthWestern Energy Group (NYSE:NWE) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Tuesday.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on NorthWestern Energy Group from $53.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Guggenheim upgraded NorthWestern Energy Group from a sell rating to a neutral rating and set a $47.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Barclays boosted their target price on NorthWestern Energy Group from $48.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an underweight rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, KeyCorp reiterated a sector weight rating on shares of NorthWestern Energy Group in a report on Thursday, January 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $51.71.

NorthWestern Energy Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE NWE opened at $48.93 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $3.00 billion, a PE ratio of 15.20 and a beta of 0.43. NorthWestern Energy Group has a fifty-two week low of $45.97 and a fifty-two week high of $60.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 0.76. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $49.01 and a 200-day moving average of $49.41.

NorthWestern Energy Group (NYSE:NWE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The company reported $1.38 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.19. NorthWestern Energy Group had a return on equity of 7.23% and a net margin of 13.64%. The business had revenue of $356.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $443.27 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.13 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that NorthWestern Energy Group will post 3.53 earnings per share for the current year.

NorthWestern Energy Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.31%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This is a positive change from NorthWestern Energy Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.64. NorthWestern Energy Group’s payout ratio is 80.75%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NorthWestern Energy Group

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of NWE. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group by 49.9% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,079,648 shares of the company’s stock valued at $307,267,000 after acquiring an additional 1,690,016 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA bought a new stake in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group in the 3rd quarter valued at about $36,513,000. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group by 42.3% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,393,653 shares of the company’s stock valued at $144,792,000 after acquiring an additional 711,238 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $34,257,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group by 40.6% in the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,285,766 shares of the company’s stock valued at $135,637,000 after acquiring an additional 660,491 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.07% of the company’s stock.

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.