New York Life Investment Management LLC Raises Position in NorthWestern Corporation $NWE

New York Life Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE) by 6.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 137,843 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 8,765 shares during the period. New York Life Investment Management LLC owned approximately 0.22% of NorthWestern worth $8,896,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of NWE. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of NorthWestern by 0.6% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,968,816 shares of the company’s stock worth $174,002,000 after acquiring an additional 16,602 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in NorthWestern by 0.5% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,594,485 shares of the company’s stock valued at $133,097,000 after purchasing an additional 12,530 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in NorthWestern by 0.3% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,338,278 shares of the company’s stock valued at $78,436,000 after purchasing an additional 4,261 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in NorthWestern by 65.6% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,222,376 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,708,000 after purchasing an additional 484,266 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in NorthWestern by 69.7% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,147,269 shares of the company’s stock valued at $67,241,000 after purchasing an additional 471,125 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.07% of the company’s stock.

NorthWestern Trading Down 2.0%

Shares of NASDAQ NWE opened at $70.24 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $69.39 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $67.49. NorthWestern Corporation has a 52-week low of $50.46 and a 52-week high of $75.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.82, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 0.35. The company has a quick ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10.

NorthWestern (NASDAQ:NWE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $1.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $516.60 million for the quarter. NorthWestern had a return on equity of 7.80% and a net margin of 10.21%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.22 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that NorthWestern Corporation will post 3.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NorthWestern Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 15th. NorthWestern’s dividend payout ratio is presently 98.53%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on NWE shares. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “underweight” rating and issued a $54.00 price target on shares of NorthWestern in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Barclays increased their price target on NorthWestern from $62.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 20th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded NorthWestern from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $56.00 to $75.50 in a research note on Wednesday, April 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on NorthWestern from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded NorthWestern to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 25th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $68.30.

NorthWestern Company Profile

NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ: NWE) is a regulated energy company that delivers electricity and natural gas to residential, commercial and industrial customers. Through its Electric Operations and Gas Operations segments, the company operates an extensive network of distribution lines, substations and pipelines. NorthWestern’s services encompass the delivery of power sourced from regional transmission systems and the procurement, storage and distribution of natural gas to end users.

Electric delivery services include the management of distribution infrastructure, customer metering and system reliability programs.