NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE) Declares $0.67 Quarterly Dividend

NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, July 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 17th will be given a dividend of 0.67 per share on Tuesday, September 1st. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 17th.

NorthWestern has raised its dividend payment by an average of 0.0%per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 21 years. NorthWestern has a payout ratio of 69.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect NorthWestern to earn $3.99 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.68 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 67.2%.

NorthWestern Stock Performance

NASDAQ NWE opened at $70.61 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $4.34 billion, a PE ratio of 25.96, a P/E/G ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 0.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a current ratio of 0.70. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $71.10 and a 200-day moving average of $69.78. NorthWestern has a 52-week low of $52.19 and a 52-week high of $75.18.

NorthWestern (NASDAQ:NWE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $392.60 million for the quarter. NorthWestern had a net margin of 10.21% and a return on equity of 7.80%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that NorthWestern will post 3.75 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on NWE shares. Weiss Ratings upgraded NorthWestern from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $54.00 price target on shares of NorthWestern in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of NorthWestern from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of NorthWestern to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 25th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on NorthWestern from $62.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $70.10.

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.