Burford Brothers Inc. Purchases New Position in Black Hills Corporation $BKH

Burford Brothers Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Black Hills Corporation (NYSE:BKH) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 16,667 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,026,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Paradiem LLC boosted its stake in Black Hills by 858.5% in the third quarter. Paradiem LLC now owns 234,833 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $14,463,000 after purchasing an additional 210,333 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Black Hills in the second quarter valued at $616,000. Midwest Trust Co bought a new position in shares of Black Hills in the second quarter valued at about $3,039,000. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in Black Hills by 294.8% during the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 262,011 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $14,699,000 after buying an additional 195,640 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hennessy Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Black Hills by 19.4% during the 2nd quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 53,647 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,010,000 after acquiring an additional 8,700 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BKH has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Scotiabank raised shares of Black Hills from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $81.00 in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Black Hills in a report on Monday, December 29th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Black Hills currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $71.00.

Black Hills Trading Up 3.7%

BKH opened at $71.95 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The company has a market cap of $5.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.75. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $69.82 and a 200 day simple moving average of $63.11. Black Hills Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $54.92 and a fifty-two week high of $74.02.

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45. Black Hills had a net margin of 12.54% and a return on equity of 7.86%. The firm had revenue of $430.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $439.96 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.35 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Black Hills Corporation will post 4.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Black Hills Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Monday, November 17th were issued a $0.676 dividend. This represents a $2.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 17th. Black Hills’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.18%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Black Hills news, CFO Kimberly F. Nooney sold 14,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.70, for a total transaction of $1,025,150.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 34,621 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,447,704.70. This trade represents a 29.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.63% of the company’s stock.

About Black Hills

Black Hills Corporation is a diversified energy company based in Rapid City, South Dakota, that provides electricity and natural gas distribution services to residential, commercial and industrial customers. Through its regulated utility subsidiaries—Black Hills Power, Cheyenne Light & Power, and Black Hills Energy—the company delivers reliable energy across Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming.

In addition to its distribution operations, Black Hills owns and operates a generation portfolio that includes natural gas–fired plants, coal-fired units, hydroelectric facilities and wind projects.