Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) Shares Sold by Federated Hermes Inc.

Federated Hermes Inc. reduced its holdings in Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) by 9.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 8,501 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 865 shares during the quarter. Federated Hermes Inc.’s holdings in Black Hills were worth $459,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of BKH. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Black Hills by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,821,296 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $395,679,000 after buying an additional 279,987 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of Black Hills by 640.8% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 256,527 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $13,840,000 after buying an additional 221,898 shares during the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Black Hills by 16.3% in the 3rd quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,344,162 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $68,001,000 after buying an additional 188,266 shares during the last quarter. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Black Hills by 10,111.4% in the 3rd quarter. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC now owns 176,146 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $8,911,000 after buying an additional 174,421 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Black Hills by 21.9% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 777,396 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $39,328,000 after buying an additional 139,757 shares during the last quarter. 86.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on BKH. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of Black Hills from $61.00 to $57.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 9th. Scotiabank cut their price objective on shares of Black Hills from $58.00 to $54.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Black Hills from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and four have given a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Black Hills presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.00.

Black Hills Stock Down 0.4 %

BKH stock opened at $55.77 on Friday. Black Hills Co. has a 52 week low of $46.43 and a 52 week high of $66.85. The company has a market capitalization of $3.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.23 and a beta of 0.64. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $53.17 and its two-hundred day moving average is $52.39. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 8th. The utilities provider reported $1.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.06 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $591.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $863.67 million. Black Hills had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 8.09%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.11 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Black Hills Co. will post 3.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Black Hills Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.66%. Black Hills’s dividend payout ratio is currently 66.33%.

About Black Hills

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.