Brokerages Set NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:NWE) Target Price at $60.00

Shares of NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:NWE) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $60.00.

Several research firms have issued reports on NWE. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of NorthWestern Energy Group from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. BMO Capital Markets started coverage on shares of NorthWestern Energy Group in a research report on Tuesday, May 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $60.00 price objective for the company. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $56.00 price objective (down previously from $57.50) on shares of NorthWestern Energy Group in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of NorthWestern Energy Group from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of NWE. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. boosted its holdings in NorthWestern Energy Group by 11.7% in the 2nd quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 1,118,650 shares of the company’s stock valued at $57,387,000 after purchasing an additional 117,449 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its holdings in NorthWestern Energy Group by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 10,539 shares of the company’s stock valued at $541,000 after purchasing an additional 477 shares during the period. Creative Planning boosted its holdings in NorthWestern Energy Group by 2.9% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 10,678 shares of the company’s stock valued at $548,000 after purchasing an additional 303 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS boosted its holdings in NorthWestern Energy Group by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 118,357 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,072,000 after purchasing an additional 798 shares during the period. Finally, Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey boosted its holdings in NorthWestern Energy Group by 8.1% in the 2nd quarter. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey now owns 14,192 shares of the company’s stock valued at $728,000 after purchasing an additional 1,067 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.07% of the company’s stock.

NorthWestern Energy Group Stock Performance

NYSE NWE opened at $55.33 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $52.50 and a 200-day moving average price of $54.61. NorthWestern Energy Group has a twelve month low of $50.43 and a twelve month high of $59.89. The firm has a market cap of $3.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.35. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94.

NorthWestern Energy Group (NYSE:NWE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The company reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.02. NorthWestern Energy Group had a return on equity of 7.40% and a net margin of 14.81%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.53 EPS. NorthWestern Energy Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that NorthWestern Energy Group will post 3.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NorthWestern Energy Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.66 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 15th. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.8%. NorthWestern Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio is 71.93%.

NorthWestern Energy Group Company Profile

NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc provides electricity and natural gas to residential, commercial, and various industrial customers. 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.