Van Diest Capital LLC Purchases New Position in NorthWestern Corporation $NWE

Van Diest Capital LLC purchased a new stake in NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWEFree Report) in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 7,330 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $483,000.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its holdings in shares of NorthWestern by 4,774.6% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 216,139 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,252,000 after purchasing an additional 211,705 shares in the last quarter. Caxton Associates LLP acquired a new position in shares of NorthWestern in the 1st quarter valued at $43,340,000. Sei Investments Co. boosted its holdings in NorthWestern by 34.4% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 56,426 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,721,000 after buying an additional 14,427 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its holdings in NorthWestern by 39.3% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 15,611 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,029,000 after buying an additional 4,403 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Magellan Asset Management Ltd grew its position in NorthWestern by 25.7% during the first quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd now owns 65,874 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,344,000 after buying an additional 13,464 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.07% of the company’s stock.

NorthWestern Stock Up 0.4%

NWE stock opened at $72.86 on Friday. NorthWestern Corporation has a 52 week low of $51.92 and a 52 week high of $75.18. The company has a quick ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $71.08 and a 200-day simple moving average of $69.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.79, a P/E/G ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 0.34.

NorthWestern (NASDAQ:NWEGet Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $1.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $516.60 million for the quarter. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.22 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that NorthWestern Corporation will post 3.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NorthWestern Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.7%. NorthWestern’s dividend payout ratio is presently 98.53%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NWE has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised shares of NorthWestern from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $56.00 to $75.50 in a report on Wednesday, April 1st. Weiss Ratings raised shares of NorthWestern from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Barclays raised their target price on NorthWestern from $62.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 20th. 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. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised NorthWestern to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $70.10.

Read Our Latest Report on NWE

About NorthWestern

(Free Report)

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.

See Also

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Institutional Ownership by Quarter for NorthWestern (NASDAQ:NWE)

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