William Blair Investment Management LLC Decreases Stock Position in NorthWestern Corporation $NWE

William Blair Investment Management LLC reduced its position in NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE) by 9.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 413,328 shares of the company’s stock after selling 42,892 shares during the quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC owned approximately 0.67% of NorthWestern worth $26,676,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of NWE. UBS Group AG increased its position in NorthWestern by 479.9% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 707,822 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,683,000 after buying an additional 585,768 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in NorthWestern by 65.6% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,222,376 shares of the company’s stock worth $62,708,000 after buying an additional 484,266 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in NorthWestern by 69.7% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,147,269 shares of the company’s stock worth $67,241,000 after buying an additional 471,125 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners increased its position in NorthWestern by 595.7% in the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 525,581 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,805,000 after buying an additional 450,039 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. increased its position in NorthWestern by 1,211.4% in the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 430,361 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,223,000 after buying an additional 397,544 shares during the last quarter. 96.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NWE has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded NorthWestern to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on NorthWestern from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $54.00 price target on shares of NorthWestern in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded NorthWestern from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $56.00 to $75.50 in a research report on Wednesday, April 1st. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on NorthWestern from $62.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $68.30.

NorthWestern Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NWE opened at $71.93 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $4.42 billion, a PE ratio of 26.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.80 and a beta of 0.35. NorthWestern Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $50.46 and a fifty-two week high of $75.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a current ratio of 0.70. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $69.75 and a 200-day moving average of $68.01.

NorthWestern (NASDAQ:NWE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported $1.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $516.60 million during the quarter. NorthWestern had a return on equity of 7.80% and a net margin of 10.21%.NorthWestern’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.22 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that NorthWestern Corporation will post 3.75 earnings per share for the current year.

NorthWestern Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.7%. NorthWestern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 98.53%.

About NorthWestern

NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ: NWE) is a regulated energy company that delivers electricity and natural gas to residential, commercial and industrial customers. Through its Electric Operations and Gas Operations segments, the company operates an extensive network of distribution lines, substations and pipelines. NorthWestern’s services encompass the delivery of power sourced from regional transmission systems and the procurement, storage and distribution of natural gas to end users.

Electric delivery services include the management of distribution infrastructure, customer metering and system reliability programs.