NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.65 (NYSE:NWE)

NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:NWE) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, August 1st, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be given a dividend of 0.65 per share on Monday, September 30th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th.

NorthWestern Energy Group has raised its dividend payment by an average of 2.2% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 20 consecutive years. NorthWestern Energy Group has a payout ratio of 70.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect NorthWestern Energy Group to earn $3.67 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 70.8%.

NorthWestern Energy Group Price Performance

NYSE:NWE opened at $54.58 on Thursday. NorthWestern Energy Group has a 52 week low of $45.97 and a 52 week high of $55.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.52. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $52.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $51.01. The firm has a market cap of $3.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.90 and a beta of 0.46.

NorthWestern Energy Group (NYSE:NWE) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $319.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $310.40 million. NorthWestern Energy Group had a return on equity of 7.65% and a net margin of 14.21%. The company’s revenue was up 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.35 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that NorthWestern Energy Group will post 3.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other NorthWestern Energy Group news, Director Britt E. Ide sold 688 shares of NorthWestern Energy Group stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.92, for a total transaction of $35,720.96. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $559,593.76. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.94% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NWE has been the subject of several recent research reports. Mizuho upped their price objective on NorthWestern Energy Group from $51.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on NorthWestern Energy Group from $54.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. StockNews.com cut NorthWestern Energy Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on shares of NorthWestern Energy Group from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NorthWestern Energy Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $53.43.

About NorthWestern Energy Group

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.