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

NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, July 29th. Stockholders 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 of this dividend is Monday, August 17th.

NorthWestern has raised its dividend by an average of 0.0%annually 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% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Trading Down 2.3%

NASDAQ NWE opened at $70.61 on Thursday. NorthWestern has a 1-year low of $52.19 and a 1-year 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 company has a market capitalization of $4.34 billion, a PE ratio of 25.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 0.34. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $71.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $69.78.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on NWE. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $54.00 target price on shares of NorthWestern in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of NorthWestern from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised NorthWestern from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $56.00 to $75.50 in a research note on Wednesday, April 1st. Barclays lifted 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, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of NorthWestern from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average 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.