First Trust Advisors LP Has $50.10 Million Stake in Black Hills Corporation $BKH

First Trust Advisors LP trimmed its position in shares of Black Hills Corporation (NYSE:BKH) by 4.6% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 893,096 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 42,942 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in Black Hills were worth $50,103,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Black Hills during the 1st quarter worth about $43,690,000. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in Black Hills by 59.3% in the 2nd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,045,165 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $58,634,000 after buying an additional 388,936 shares during the period. McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Black Hills during the second quarter worth approximately $13,464,000. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC boosted its position in shares of Black Hills by 551.4% in the first quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 242,668 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $14,718,000 after acquiring an additional 205,414 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in shares of Black Hills by 294.8% in the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 262,011 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $14,699,000 after acquiring an additional 195,640 shares during the last quarter. 86.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Black Hills news, CFO Kimberly F. Nooney sold 14,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.70, for a total value of $1,025,150.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 34,621 shares in the company, valued at $2,447,704.70. This represents a 29.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.63% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Black Hills Price Performance

Shares of Black Hills stock opened at $70.10 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $5.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.74. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $66.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $61.19. Black Hills Corporation has a twelve month low of $54.92 and a twelve month high of $74.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.91.

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45. The firm had revenue of $430.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $439.96 million. Black Hills had a net margin of 12.54% and a return on equity of 7.86%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.35 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Black Hills Corporation will post 4.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Black Hills Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Monday, November 17th were paid a $0.676 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 17th. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.9%. Black Hills’s payout ratio is currently 68.18%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on BKH shares. Bank of America upgraded shares of Black Hills from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $57.00 to $64.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 20th. Scotiabank raised shares of Black Hills from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $66.00 to $81.00 in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Black Hills in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $71.00.

Black Hills Profile

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.