GW&K Investment Management LLC Sells 11,377 Shares of NorthWestern Corporation $NWE

GW&K Investment Management LLC lessened its stake in shares of NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE) by 1.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 593,888 shares of the company’s stock after selling 11,377 shares during the period. GW&K Investment Management LLC owned approximately 0.97% of NorthWestern worth $38,330,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in NorthWestern by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,968,816 shares of the company’s stock valued at $174,002,000 after buying an additional 16,602 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in NorthWestern by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,594,485 shares of the company’s stock valued at $133,097,000 after buying an additional 12,530 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in NorthWestern by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,436,750 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,728,000 after buying an additional 98,472 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in NorthWestern by 65.6% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,222,376 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,708,000 after buying an additional 484,266 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in NorthWestern by 69.7% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,147,269 shares of the company’s stock valued at $67,241,000 after buying an additional 471,125 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on NWE. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “underweight” rating and set a $54.00 price target on shares of NorthWestern in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded NorthWestern from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $56.00 to $75.50 in a report on Wednesday, April 1st. Barclays increased their price target on NorthWestern from $62.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 20th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on NorthWestern from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of NorthWestern in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Three 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NorthWestern currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $68.30.

NorthWestern Price Performance

NWE opened at $69.72 on Thursday. NorthWestern Corporation has a 12-month low of $50.46 and a 12-month 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 business’s fifty day simple moving average is $70.66 and its 200-day simple moving average is $68.41. The company has a market capitalization of $4.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.63, a PEG ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 0.34.

NorthWestern (NASDAQ:NWE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $1.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.02. NorthWestern had a return on equity of 7.80% and a net margin of 10.21%.The business had revenue of $516.60 million for the quarter. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.22 EPS. NorthWestern’s quarterly revenue was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that NorthWestern Corporation will post 3.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NorthWestern Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be given a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. NorthWestern’s dividend payout ratio is presently 98.53%.

NorthWestern 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.