Cerity Partners LLC Sells 3,939 Shares of Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH)

Cerity Partners LLC trimmed its position in shares of Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) by 13.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 25,588 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 3,939 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in Black Hills were worth $1,380,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of BKH. State Street Corp boosted its position in Black Hills by 16.1% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,059,252 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $466,684,000 after acquiring an additional 838,590 shares in the last quarter. Zimmer Partners LP bought a new stake in Black Hills during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $39,326,000. Capital Research Global Investors purchased a new position in shares of Black Hills during the first quarter valued at approximately $45,758,000. Macquarie Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Black Hills by 14.6% during the second quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. now owns 2,502,209 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $182,085,000 after purchasing an additional 318,024 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Black Hills by 3.7% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,821,296 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $395,679,000 after purchasing an additional 279,987 shares during the last quarter. 86.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Black Hills Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BKH opened at $54.00 on Friday. Black Hills Co. has a twelve month low of $46.43 and a twelve month high of $66.85. The firm has a market cap of $3.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.78 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a 50 day moving average of $52.70 and a 200 day moving average of $52.07. The company has a quick ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 8th. The utilities provider reported $1.17 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by $0.11. Black Hills had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 8.09%. The company had revenue of $591.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $863.67 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.11 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Black Hills Co. will post 3.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Black Hills Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 16th were issued a $0.65 dividend. This is a positive change from Black Hills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.63. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.81%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 15th. Black Hills’s payout ratio is presently 66.33%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on BKH. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Black Hills from $61.00 to $57.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 9th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Black Hills from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of Black Hills from $57.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and four have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.80.

Black Hills Company 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.