Scotiabank Upgrades Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) to “Sector Outperform”

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) was upgraded by stock analysts at Scotiabank from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage presently has a $81.00 target price on the utilities provider’s stock, up from their prior target price of $66.00. Scotiabank’s target price suggests a potential upside of 16.74% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on BKH. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Black Hills in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Bank of America raised shares of Black Hills from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $57.00 to $64.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $71.00.

Black Hills Stock Up 2.4%

Shares of NYSE BKH traded up $1.64 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $69.39. 241,913 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 566,939. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.49 and a current ratio of 0.64. The company has a market cap of $5.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.45, a PEG ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 0.76. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $61.42 and a 200-day moving average price of $59.44. Black Hills has a 52 week low of $54.92 and a 52 week high of $69.40.

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45. Black Hills had a net margin of 12.68% and a return on equity of 7.81%. The business had revenue of $430.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $439.96 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.35 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Black Hills will post 4.12 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Black Hills

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BKH. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Black Hills by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,990,841 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $553,746,000 after purchasing an additional 225,636 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Black Hills by 0.8% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,841,615 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $215,515,000 after buying an additional 31,093 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Black Hills by 2.1% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,822,356 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $102,252,000 after buying an additional 36,818 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Black Hills by 59.3% during the 2nd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,045,165 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $58,634,000 after purchasing an additional 388,936 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Black Hills by 1.2% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 899,103 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $50,440,000 after buying an additional 10,691 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.71% of the company’s stock.

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.