Weiss Asset Management LP Acquires 25,832 Shares of NorthWestern Corporation $NWE

Weiss Asset Management LP raised its holdings in NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE) by 84.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 56,276 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 25,832 shares during the quarter. Weiss Asset Management LP’s holdings in NorthWestern were worth $3,711,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of NorthWestern by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,637,718 shares of the company’s stock worth $170,238,000 after acquiring an additional 14,751 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in shares of NorthWestern by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,436,750 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,728,000 after purchasing an additional 98,472 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in shares of NorthWestern by 65.6% during the 2nd 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. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in NorthWestern by 69.7% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,147,269 shares of the company’s stock worth $67,241,000 after purchasing an additional 471,125 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in NorthWestern by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,023,230 shares of the company’s stock worth $67,472,000 after purchasing an additional 5,815 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on NWE. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of NorthWestern from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of NorthWestern from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded NorthWestern from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $56.00 to $75.50 in a research note on Wednesday, April 1st. Barclays raised their price objective on NorthWestern from $62.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 20th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded NorthWestern to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 25th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, NorthWestern currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $70.10.

NorthWestern Price Performance

NASDAQ:NWE opened at $72.86 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $71.08 and its 200 day simple moving average is $69.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.52. NorthWestern Corporation has a one year low of $51.92 and a one year high of $75.18. The company has a market cap of $4.48 billion, a PE ratio of 26.79, a P/E/G ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 0.34.

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

NorthWestern Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th were paid a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.7%. NorthWestern’s payout ratio is currently 98.53%.

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.