Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Grows Stock Holdings in NorthWestern Corporation $NWE

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS raised its position in shares of NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE) by 13.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 132,201 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 15,938 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in NorthWestern were worth $8,532,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Signaturefd LLC boosted its stake in NorthWestern by 28.5% in the 4th quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 879 shares of the company’s stock worth $57,000 after purchasing an additional 195 shares in the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its stake in NorthWestern by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 19,320 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,132,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Strs Ohio boosted its stake in NorthWestern by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 18,800 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,213,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its stake in NorthWestern by 34.3% in the 2nd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 845 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Advisory Services Network LLC boosted its stake in NorthWestern by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 6,763 shares of the company’s stock worth $396,000 after purchasing an additional 224 shares in the last quarter. 96.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on NWE shares. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of NorthWestern from $62.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of NorthWestern to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 25th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $54.00 target price on shares of NorthWestern in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of NorthWestern from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of NorthWestern in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, NorthWestern has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $68.30.

NorthWestern Stock Performance

NWE opened at $68.23 on Tuesday. NorthWestern Corporation has a 12-month low of $50.46 and a 12-month high of $75.18. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.20 billion, a PE ratio of 25.08, a P/E/G ratio of 3.73 and a beta of 0.34. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $70.08 and a two-hundred day moving average of $68.24.

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

NorthWestern Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.9%. NorthWestern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.