Strs Ohio Sells 400 Shares of NorthWestern Co. (NASDAQ:NWE)

Strs Ohio cut its holdings in shares of NorthWestern Co. (NASDAQ:NWE – Get Rating) by 12.5% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 2,800 shares of the company’s stock after selling 400 shares during the period. Strs Ohio’s holdings in NorthWestern were worth $137,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NWE. Bank of Montreal Can lifted its stake in shares of NorthWestern by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 26,264 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,577,000 after acquiring an additional 1,527 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its stake in shares of NorthWestern by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 165,505 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,011,000 after acquiring an additional 2,746 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. lifted its stake in shares of NorthWestern by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 8,852,795 shares of the company’s stock valued at $535,506,000 after acquiring an additional 74,439 shares during the last quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can lifted its stake in shares of NorthWestern by 17.2% in the 1st quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 64,308 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,067,000 after acquiring an additional 9,425 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Yousif Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of NorthWestern by 3.8% in the 1st quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 28,518 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,725,000 after acquiring an additional 1,031 shares during the last quarter. 96.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NWE has been the subject of a number of research reports. Mizuho increased their price target on NorthWestern from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, December 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on NorthWestern in a report on Tuesday, November 1st. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $55.00 price objective for the company. Bank of America upgraded NorthWestern from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $58.00 to $56.00 in a report on Thursday, September 29th. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on NorthWestern from $64.00 to $59.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 20th. Finally, Guggenheim decreased their price objective on NorthWestern from $58.00 to $48.00 in a report on Monday, October 24th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NorthWestern has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $57.56.

NorthWestern Stock Performance

NWE stock opened at $55.66 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $57.55 and a 200-day moving average price of $54.60. NorthWestern Co. has a 1-year low of $48.68 and a 1-year high of $63.06. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. The firm has a market cap of $3.22 billion, a PE ratio of 18.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.61 and a beta of 0.43.

NorthWestern (NASDAQ:NWE – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 24th. The company reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.58 by ($0.16). The business had revenue of $335.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $300.40 million. NorthWestern had a return on equity of 6.98% and a net margin of 11.97%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that NorthWestern Co. will post 3.28 earnings per share for the current year.

NorthWestern Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 15th were paid a $0.63 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 14th. This represents a $2.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.53%. NorthWestern’s dividend payout ratio is presently 82.62%.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Michael R. Cashell sold 1,702 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.19, for a total value of $90,529.38. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 15,812 shares in the company, valued at approximately $841,040.28. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other NorthWestern news, VP Michael R. Cashell sold 1,702 shares of NorthWestern stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.19, for a total transaction of $90,529.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 15,812 shares in the company, valued at approximately $841,040.28. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Brian B. Bird sold 6,800 shares of NorthWestern stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.51, for a total value of $357,068.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 108,462 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,695,339.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.17% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

NorthWestern Company Profile

(Get Rating)

NorthWestern Corporation, doing business as NorthWestern Energy, provides electricity and natural gas to residential, commercial, and various industrial customers. The company operates through Electric and Natural Gas segments. It generates, purchases, transmits, and distributes electricity; and produces, purchases, stores, transmits, and distributes natural gas, as well as owns municipal franchises to provide natural gas service in the communities.