Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) Receives Consensus Rating of “Reduce” from Analysts

Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) has earned an average recommendation of “Reduce” from the five ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have given a hold rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $55.00.

BKH has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Scotiabank decreased their price target on Black Hills from $58.00 to $54.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on Black Hills from $61.00 to $57.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 9th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Black Hills from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Black Hills

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of BKH. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in Black Hills by 17.1% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 3,251,722 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $175,430,000 after purchasing an additional 475,768 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Black Hills by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,143,567 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $439,345,000 after purchasing an additional 322,271 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in Black Hills by 640.8% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 256,527 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $13,840,000 after purchasing an additional 221,898 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in Black Hills by 36.9% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 755,095 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $40,737,000 after purchasing an additional 203,340 shares during the period. Finally, Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Black Hills by 16.3% during the 3rd quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,344,162 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $68,001,000 after purchasing an additional 188,266 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.71% of the company’s stock.

Black Hills Stock Down 0.4 %

BKH stock opened at $55.77 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.23 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. Black Hills has a 12 month low of $46.43 and a 12 month high of $66.85. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $53.17 and a two-hundred day moving average of $52.39.

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 8th. The utilities provider reported $1.17 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.06 by $0.11. Black Hills had a return on equity of 8.09% and a net margin of 11.25%. 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 prior year, the business posted $1.11 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Black Hills will post 3.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Black Hills Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.66%. Black Hills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 66.33%.

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.