Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) Reaches New 1-Year High After Analyst Upgrade

Black Hills Corporation (NYSE:BKH) shares hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday after BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on the stock from $70.00 to $82.00. BMO Capital Markets currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Black Hills traded as high as $74.23 and last traded at $73.57, with a volume of 71479 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $72.68.

BKH has been the topic of several other research reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Black Hills in a report on Monday, December 29th. Scotiabank upgraded Black Hills from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $81.00 in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Black Hills has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $75.67.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Black Hills news, CFO Kimberly F. Nooney sold 14,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.70, for a total transaction of $1,025,150.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 34,621 shares in the company, valued at $2,447,704.70. This trade represents a 29.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.63% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Black Hills

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Black Hills by 2.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,990,841 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $553,746,000 after purchasing an additional 225,636 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Black Hills by 0.8% during the 2nd 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 position in shares of Black Hills by 2.1% during the 2nd 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 during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Black Hills by 52.8% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,374,050 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $84,628,000 after buying an additional 474,947 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Zimmer Partners LP boosted its stake in Black Hills by 2,100.0% in the third quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 1,100,020 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $67,750,000 after buying an additional 1,050,020 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.71% of the company’s stock.

Black Hills Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The stock has a market cap of $5.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.38, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.75. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $71.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $64.75.

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45. The company had revenue of $430.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $439.96 million. Black Hills had a return on equity of 7.86% and a net margin of 12.54%.Black Hills’s revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.35 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Black Hills Corporation will post 4.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Black Hills Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be given a $0.703 dividend. This is an increase from Black Hills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 17th. This represents a $2.81 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.9%. Black Hills’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.18%.

Black Hills Company Profile

Black Hills Corporation is a diversified energy company based in Rapid City, South Dakota, that provides electricity and natural gas distribution services to residential, commercial and industrial customers. Through its regulated utility subsidiaries—Black Hills Power, Cheyenne Light & Power, and Black Hills Energy—the company delivers reliable energy across Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming.

In addition to its distribution operations, Black Hills owns and operates a generation portfolio that includes natural gas–fired plants, coal-fired units, hydroelectric facilities and wind projects.