Pinnacle West Capital Corporation (NYSE:PNW) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Pinnacle West Capital Corporation (NYSE:PNW) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the ten research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $97.00.

PNW has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded shares of Pinnacle West Capital to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Pinnacle West Capital from $95.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Pinnacle West Capital from $87.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Wall Street Zen downgraded Pinnacle West Capital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Pinnacle West Capital from $88.00 to $87.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Pinnacle West Capital by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,464,661 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,377,759,000 after purchasing an additional 283,752 shares during the period. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC boosted its stake in shares of Pinnacle West Capital by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 6,864,993 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $581,945,000 after buying an additional 37,768 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Pinnacle West Capital by 32.2% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,298,009 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $364,342,000 after acquiring an additional 1,045,788 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Pinnacle West Capital by 7.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,880,315 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $243,897,000 after acquiring an additional 204,805 shares during the period. Finally, ATLAS Infrastructure Partners UK Ltd. raised its position in Pinnacle West Capital by 230.5% during the first quarter. ATLAS Infrastructure Partners UK Ltd. now owns 2,793,546 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $266,085,000 after acquiring an additional 1,948,416 shares in the last quarter. 91.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Pinnacle West Capital Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of PNW stock opened at $88.53 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $91.14 and its 200 day moving average price is $89.83. Pinnacle West Capital has a 1-year low of $75.10 and a 1-year high of $96.50. The company has a market cap of $10.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.25 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 0.50 and a quick ratio of 0.34.

Pinnacle West Capital (NYSE:PNW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.05 by ($0.09). Pinnacle West Capital had a return on equity of 8.78% and a net margin of 11.28%. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $988.95 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.15 EPS. Pinnacle West Capital’s revenue was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Pinnacle West Capital will post 5.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pinnacle West Capital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 1st will be paid a $0.895 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 1st. This represents a $3.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.04%. Pinnacle West Capital’s payout ratio is currently 71.17%.

About Pinnacle West Capital

Pinnacle West Capital Corporation, through its subsidiary, provides retail and wholesale electric services primarily in the state of Arizona. The company engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity using coal, nuclear, gas, oil, and solar generating facilities. Its transmission facilities include overhead lines and underground lines; and distribution facilities consist of overhead lines and underground primary cables.