Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. Acquires 2,556 Shares of Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH)

Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) by 48.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,872 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,556 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Black Hills were worth $425,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of BKH. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Black Hills by 7.1% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,963,935 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $479,907,000 after purchasing an additional 526,334 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake 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 worth $395,679,000 after purchasing an additional 279,987 shares during the period. Macquarie Group Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Black Hills by 0.4% during the first quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. now owns 2,554,967 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $161,218,000 after purchasing an additional 9,330 shares during the period. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Black Hills by 16.3% during the third 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. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Black Hills by 3.5% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,312,779 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $82,836,000 after purchasing an additional 44,760 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on BKH shares. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price 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. Scotiabank raised their price objective on Black Hills from $57.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating 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. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and four have issued a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.80.

Black Hills Trading Up 2.9 %

NYSE BKH opened at $54.00 on Friday. 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 Co. has a twelve month low of $46.43 and a twelve month high of $66.85. The company has a market cap of $3.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.78 and a beta of 0.64. The business’s fifty day moving average is $52.70 and its 200 day moving average is $52.07.

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 8th. The utilities provider reported $1.17 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $863.67 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.11 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Black Hills Co. will post 3.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Black Hills Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 16th were given a dividend of $0.65 per share. This is a positive change from Black Hills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.63. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.81%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 15th. Black Hills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.