River Road Asset Management LLC Buys 562,548 Shares of NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:NWE)

River Road Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:NWE) by 35.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,168,217 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 562,548 shares during the period. NorthWestern Energy Group accounts for about 1.5% of River Road Asset Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest position. River Road Asset Management LLC’s holdings in NorthWestern Energy Group were worth $110,341,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of NWE. Lazard Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group in the third quarter valued at $33,000. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC grew its holdings in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group by 47.2% in the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 736 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 236 shares in the last quarter. Spirit of America Management Corp NY grew its holdings in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group by 33.3% in the third quarter. Spirit of America Management Corp NY now owns 1,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. Tucker Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in NorthWestern Energy Group by 32.7% during the third quarter. Tucker Asset Management LLC now owns 1,875 shares of the company’s stock worth $90,000 after buying an additional 462 shares during the period. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its stake in NorthWestern Energy Group by 79.7% during the first quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 1,612 shares of the company’s stock worth $98,000 after buying an additional 715 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 96.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on NWE. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of NorthWestern Energy Group from $48.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Guggenheim raised shares of NorthWestern Energy Group from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $47.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of NorthWestern Energy Group from $53.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. StockNews.com raised shares of NorthWestern Energy Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, KeyCorp reissued a “sector weight” rating on shares of NorthWestern Energy Group in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $51.71.

NorthWestern Energy Group Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of NWE stock traded up $0.62 on Wednesday, hitting $48.52. The stock had a trading volume of 316,774 shares, compared to its average volume of 405,421. The company has a quick ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $48.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $49.42. The company has a market cap of $2.97 billion, a PE ratio of 14.88 and a beta of 0.43. NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. has a one year low of $45.97 and a one year high of $60.56.

NorthWestern Energy Group (NYSE:NWE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The company reported $1.38 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $356.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $443.27 million. NorthWestern Energy Group had a net margin of 13.64% and a return on equity of 7.23%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.13 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. will post 3.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NorthWestern Energy Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This is an increase from NorthWestern Energy Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.64. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.36%. NorthWestern Energy Group’s payout ratio is currently 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.