35,000 Shares in MDU Resources Group, Inc. $MDU Purchased by Westport Asset Management Inc.

Westport Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in MDU Resources Group, Inc. (NYSE:MDU) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 35,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $742,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MDU. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of MDU Resources Group by 604.3% in the fourth quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 158,043 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,085,000 after buying an additional 135,602 shares in the last quarter. Comerica Bank grew its position in MDU Resources Group by 22.3% during the fourth quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 243,107 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,745,000 after buying an additional 44,316 shares in the last quarter. Seven Grand Managers LLC acquired a new stake in MDU Resources Group during the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,928,000. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its stake in MDU Resources Group by 47.0% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 285,186 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,909,000 after acquiring an additional 91,140 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in MDU Resources Group by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,828,483 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $465,132,000 after acquiring an additional 571,015 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MDU has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company began coverage on MDU Resources Group in a research report on Monday, July 13th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $25.00 target price for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded MDU Resources Group from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $27.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on MDU Resources Group to $22.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of MDU Resources Group in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $23.40.

MDU Resources Group Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MDU opened at $20.45 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $20.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $21.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.95. MDU Resources Group, Inc. has a 1 year low of $15.76 and a 1 year high of $22.98.

MDU Resources Group (NYSE:MDU) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.10 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.09 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $375.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $396.56 million. MDU Resources Group had a return on equity of 6.89% and a net margin of 10.75%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.07 earnings per share. MDU Resources Group has set its FY 2026 guidance at 0.930-1.000 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that MDU Resources Group, Inc. will post 0.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

MDU Resources Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.145 per share. This is an increase from MDU Resources Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.14. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 10th. This represents a $0.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. MDU Resources Group’s payout ratio is presently 58.95%.

MDU Resources Group Profile

MDU Resources Group, Inc is a diversified energy and services holding company headquartered in Bismarck, North Dakota. The company operates through two primary segments: Utilities and Construction Services and Pipelines & Midstream. Serving a broad geographic footprint across the upper Midwest and Pacific Northwest, MDU provides essential energy distribution and infrastructure services to residential, commercial and industrial customers.

The Utilities segment delivers electric and natural gas distribution services in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Kansas, Wisconsin, Michigan and Washington.