Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) Reaches New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

Black Hills Corporation (NYSE:BKH) shares hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $66.91 and last traded at $66.5450, with a volume of 182585 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $64.75.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BKH has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Bank of America raised Black Hills from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $57.00 to $64.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 20th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Black Hills in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $66.00.

Black Hills Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $61.26 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $59.38. The company has a market capitalization of $4.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 0.73.

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45. The business had revenue of $430.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $439.96 million. Black Hills had a return on equity of 7.81% and a net margin of 12.68%.Black Hills’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.35 EPS. Black Hills has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.000-4.20 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Black Hills Corporation will post 4.12 EPS for the current year.

Black Hills Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 17th will be paid a $0.676 dividend. This represents a $2.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.0%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 17th. Black Hills’s dividend payout ratio is 68.01%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BKH. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Black Hills by 59.2% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 605 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 225 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Black Hills by 1.9% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 215,402 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $13,064,000 after buying an additional 4,077 shares during the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. raised its stake in Black Hills by 16.8% during the first quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 15,308 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $928,000 after buying an additional 2,198 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Black Hills by 9.4% during the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 59,163 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,588,000 after buying an additional 5,075 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Financial Counselors Inc. raised its stake in Black Hills by 0.3% during the first quarter. Financial Counselors Inc. now owns 54,175 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,286,000 after buying an additional 176 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.71% of the company’s stock.

About Black Hills

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.