International Assets Investment Management LLC Increases Stock Holdings in NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:NWE)

International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:NWE) by 4,989.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 8,753 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,581 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC’s holdings in NorthWestern Energy Group were worth $445,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in NWE. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA purchased a new position in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group in the third quarter valued at $36,513,000. River Road Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group by 21.7% in the third quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,605,669 shares of the company’s stock valued at $77,168,000 after buying an additional 286,417 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates increased its position in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group by 188.1% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 335,634 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,080,000 after buying an additional 219,145 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group by 5.9% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,816,111 shares of the company’s stock valued at $183,402,000 after buying an additional 211,296 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group during the third quarter valued at $8,706,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on NWE shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on NorthWestern Energy Group from $53.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. KeyCorp reaffirmed a “sector weight” rating on shares of NorthWestern Energy Group in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Guggenheim raised NorthWestern Energy Group from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $47.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. StockNews.com raised NorthWestern Energy Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on NorthWestern Energy Group from $48.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $51.71.

NorthWestern Energy Group Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE:NWE opened at $49.91 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $49.29 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $49.49. The firm has a market cap of $3.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.50 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97. NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. has a 12-month low of $45.97 and a 12-month high of $60.56.

NorthWestern Energy Group (NYSE:NWE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The company reported $1.38 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $356.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $443.27 million. NorthWestern Energy Group had a return on equity of 7.23% and a net margin of 13.64%. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.13 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. will post 3.53 EPS for the current year.

NorthWestern Energy Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.21%. This is an increase from NorthWestern Energy Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.64. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. NorthWestern Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 80.75%.

NorthWestern Energy Group 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.