Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Purchases Shares of 82,985 Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH)

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky purchased a new stake in Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH – Get Rating) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 82,985 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,620,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BKH. Wipfli Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Black Hills in the third quarter valued at approximately $53,000. CENTRAL TRUST Co boosted its holdings in shares of Black Hills by 63.3% in the third quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 890 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 345 shares during the period. Signaturefd LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Black Hills by 37.6% in the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,357 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $92,000 after acquiring an additional 371 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Black Hills in the second quarter valued at approximately $127,000. Finally, Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Black Hills by 3,758.3% in the third quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 2,315 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $156,000 after acquiring an additional 2,255 shares during the period. 88.96% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BKH has been the subject of several research analyst reports. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Black Hills in a report on Thursday. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded Black Hills from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $81.00 to $68.00 in a report on Friday, February 10th. Mizuho downgraded Black Hills from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $71.00 to $60.00 in a report on Thursday, February 9th. Bank of America downgraded Black Hills from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $79.00 to $60.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Black Hills from $71.00 to $65.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and five have given a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $67.29.

Black Hills Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BKH opened at $61.17 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 0.64 and a quick ratio of 0.52. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $66.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $68.42. Black Hills Co. has a 1-year low of $59.08 and a 1-year high of $80.95. The company has a market cap of $4.04 billion, a PE ratio of 15.33, a P/E/G ratio of 7.50 and a beta of 0.57.

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 8th. The utilities provider reported $1.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.17 by ($0.06). The business had revenue of $791.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $657.67 million. Black Hills had a return on equity of 8.59% and a net margin of 10.13%. The company’s revenue was up 40.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.11 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Black Hills Co. will post 3.73 EPS for the current year.

Black Hills Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 14th were given a $0.625 dividend. This represents a $2.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.09%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 13th. Black Hills’s payout ratio is 62.66%.

About Black Hills

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Black Hills Corp. is a diversified energy company. It operates through the following segments: Electric Utilities, Gas Utilities, and Corporate and Other. The Electric Utilities segment generates, transmits, and distributes electricity in Colorado, Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming. The Gas Utilities segment provides natural gas in Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming.