Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. Invests $278,000 in NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:NWE)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. bought a new position in NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:NWE) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 5,460 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $278,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA bought a new stake in NorthWestern Energy Group in the third quarter valued at $36,513,000. River Road Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 286,417 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates boosted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 219,145 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 211,296 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. bought a new stake in NorthWestern Energy Group in the third quarter valued at $8,706,000. Institutional investors own 96.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on NWE. Guggenheim upgraded shares of NorthWestern Energy Group from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $47.00 price target on the stock in a report 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 report on Thursday, March 21st. KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating on shares of NorthWestern Energy Group in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of NorthWestern Energy Group from $48.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of NorthWestern Energy Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $51.71.

NorthWestern Energy Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:NWE opened at $49.55 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $49.30 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $49.50. The firm has a market cap of $3.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.39 and a beta of 0.43. NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $45.97 and a fifty-two week high of $60.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 0.76.

NorthWestern Energy Group (NYSE:NWE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $1.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by ($0.30). The firm had revenue of $475.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $471.60 million. NorthWestern Energy Group had a net margin of 13.64% and a return on equity of 7.23%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.05 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. will post 3.53 earnings per share for the current year.

NorthWestern Energy Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. 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 dividend yield of 5.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. NorthWestern Energy Group’s payout ratio is currently 80.75%.

NorthWestern Energy Group Company 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.