NorthWestern Co. (NASDAQ:NWE) Shares Purchased by North Star Investment Management Corp.

North Star Investment Management Corp. increased its holdings in shares of NorthWestern Co. (NASDAQ:NWE – Get Rating) by 0.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 45,533 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 361 shares during the period. North Star Investment Management Corp. owned approximately 0.08% of NorthWestern worth $2,702,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of NWE. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in NorthWestern by 49.9% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,079,648 shares of the company’s stock worth $307,267,000 after acquiring an additional 1,690,016 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in NorthWestern by 42.3% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,393,653 shares of the company’s stock worth $144,792,000 after acquiring an additional 711,238 shares during the period. Balyasny Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in NorthWestern by 2,214.2% during the third quarter. Balyasny Asset Management LLC now owns 340,296 shares of the company’s stock worth $16,770,000 after acquiring an additional 325,591 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in NorthWestern by 5.1% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,978,134 shares of the company’s stock worth $294,602,000 after acquiring an additional 291,066 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in NorthWestern during the second quarter worth $13,053,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.60% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Jan Robert Horsfall sold 2,800 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.26, for a total transaction of $160,328.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 4,375 shares in the company, valued at $250,512.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 1.17% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on NWE. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on NorthWestern to $57.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 14th. Mizuho boosted their target price on NorthWestern from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, December 19th. Finally, Guggenheim downgraded NorthWestern from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $48.00 to $46.00 in a research report on Monday, January 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, NorthWestern presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $56.25.

NorthWestern Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NWE opened at $56.45 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93. NorthWestern Co. has a 52-week low of $48.68 and a 52-week high of $63.06. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $57.18 and its 200-day simple moving average is $55.20. The company has a market capitalization of $3.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.37, a P/E/G ratio of 9.45 and a beta of 0.42.

NorthWestern Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 31st. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 15th will be given a dividend of $0.64 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 14th. This is an increase from NorthWestern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.63. This represents a $2.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.53%. NorthWestern’s dividend payout ratio is 78.77%.

NorthWestern Company Profile

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NorthWestern Corp. engages in generating and distributing electricity and natural gas. It operates through the following segments: Electric, Gas, and Other. The Electric segment includes generation, transmission, and distribution of electric utility business as a vertically integrated generation transmission and distribution utility.