Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) Short Interest Down 7.6% in March

Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) saw a large decrease in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,900,000 shares, a decrease of 7.6% from the March 15th total of 3,140,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 573,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.1 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Black Hills

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of BKH. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Black Hills by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,821,296 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $395,679,000 after purchasing an additional 279,987 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new stake in shares of Black Hills during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,752,000. Diversified Trust Co grew its stake in shares of Black Hills by 246.0% during the 4th quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 40,501 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,185,000 after purchasing an additional 28,797 shares during the period. First Eagle Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Black Hills by 57.0% during the 3rd quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 159,190 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $8,053,000 after purchasing an additional 57,820 shares during the period. Finally, Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Black Hills by 33.8% during the 4th quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 17,215 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $929,000 after purchasing an additional 4,345 shares during the period. 86.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BKH has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com cut shares of Black Hills from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of Black Hills from $57.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 9th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Black Hills from $61.00 to $57.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and four have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Black Hills presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.80.

Black Hills Stock Performance

Shares of Black Hills stock traded down $0.81 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $51.19. The company had a trading volume of 377,370 shares, compared to its average volume of 555,180. The stock has a market cap of $3.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.06 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a quick ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $52.58 and a 200 day simple moving average of $52.00. Black Hills has a 12-month low of $46.43 and a 12-month high of $66.85.

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 8th. The utilities provider reported $1.17 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.06 by $0.11. Black Hills had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 8.09%. The firm had revenue of $591.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $863.67 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.11 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Black Hills will post 3.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Black Hills Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 16th were given a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 15th. This is a positive change from Black Hills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.63. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.08%. Black Hills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 66.33%.

About Black Hills

Black Hills Corporation, through its subsidiaries, operates as an electric and natural gas utility company in the United States. The company operates in two segments: Electric Utilities and Gas Utilities. The Electric Utilities segment generates, transmits, and distributes electricity to approximately 222,000 electric utility customers in Colorado, Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming; and owns and operates 1,394 megawatts of generation capacity and 9,106 miles of electric transmission and distribution lines.