Wells Fargo & Company Downgrades NorthWestern (NASDAQ:NWE) to Strong Sell

NorthWestern (NASDAQ:NWE) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from an “equal weight” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have a $53.00 price target on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price target would indicate a potential downside of 22.51% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on NWE. Barclays upgraded NorthWestern to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of NorthWestern in a research note on Monday, December 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $54.50.

NorthWestern Stock Performance

NorthWestern stock opened at $68.40 on Tuesday. NorthWestern has a fifty-two week low of $50.46 and a fifty-two week high of $69.23. The company has a market capitalization of $4.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.38, a PEG ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 0.35. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $66.13 and a two-hundred day moving average of $60.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.65.

NorthWestern (NASDAQ:NWE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $386.95 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $380.96 million. NorthWestern had a net margin of 13.82% and a return on equity of 7.56%.

About NorthWestern

NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ: NWE) is a regulated energy company that delivers electricity and natural gas to residential, commercial and industrial customers. Through its Electric Operations and Gas Operations segments, the company operates an extensive network of distribution lines, substations and pipelines. NorthWestern’s services encompass the delivery of power sourced from regional transmission systems and the procurement, storage and distribution of natural gas to end users.

Electric delivery services include the management of distribution infrastructure, customer metering and system reliability programs.