Wipfli Financial Advisors LLC Invests $39,000 in NorthWestern Co. (NASDAQ:NWE)

Wipfli Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of NorthWestern Co. (NASDAQ:NWE – Get Rating) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 796 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,000.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Deutsche Bank AG lifted its stake in NorthWestern by 29.0% in the 2nd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 184,250 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,858,000 after buying an additional 41,475 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its stake in NorthWestern by 216.6% in the 2nd quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 75,201 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,430,000 after buying an additional 51,446 shares in the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd lifted its stake in NorthWestern by 12.7% in the 2nd quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 6,336 shares of the company’s stock valued at $373,000 after buying an additional 715 shares in the last quarter. Martingale Asset Management L P lifted its stake in NorthWestern by 7.2% in the 2nd quarter. Martingale Asset Management L P now owns 32,817 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,935,000 after buying an additional 2,206 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in NorthWestern in the 2nd quarter valued at about $13,053,000. 96.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NWE has been the topic of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of NorthWestern to $57.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 14th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of NorthWestern in a report on Wednesday, October 12th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. KeyCorp cut their price objective on shares of NorthWestern from $64.00 to $59.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 20th. Bank of America upgraded shares of NorthWestern from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $58.00 to $56.00 in a report on Thursday, September 29th. Finally, Guggenheim cut their price objective on shares of NorthWestern from $58.00 to $48.00 in a report on Monday, October 24th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $57.56.

Insider Buying and Selling at NorthWestern

In other NorthWestern news, VP Michael R. Cashell sold 1,702 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.19, for a total value of $90,529.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 15,812 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $841,040.28. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other NorthWestern news, VP Michael R. Cashell sold 1,702 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.19, for a total value of $90,529.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 15,812 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $841,040.28. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Brian B. Bird sold 6,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.51, for a total transaction of $357,068.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 108,462 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,695,339.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.17% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

NorthWestern Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NWE opened at $58.06 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a current ratio of 0.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.04, a PEG ratio of 9.61 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $57.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $54.54. NorthWestern Co. has a fifty-two week low of $48.68 and a fifty-two week high of $63.06.

NorthWestern (NASDAQ:NWE – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 24th. The company reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.58 by ($0.16). The company had revenue of $335.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $300.40 million. NorthWestern had a return on equity of 6.98% and a net margin of 11.97%. Equities research analysts forecast that NorthWestern Co. will post 3.28 EPS for the current year.

NorthWestern Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 30th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 15th were given a dividend of $0.63 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 14th. This represents a $2.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.34%. NorthWestern’s payout ratio is currently 82.62%.

About NorthWestern

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NorthWestern Corporation, doing business as NorthWestern Energy, provides electricity and natural gas to residential, commercial, and various industrial customers. The company operates through Electric and Natural Gas segments. 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.