First Eagle Investment Management LLC Reduces Stock Position in Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH)

First Eagle Investment Management LLC lowered its position in shares of Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) by 28.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 231,416 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 91,453 shares during the period. First Eagle Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Black Hills were worth $13,542,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Black Hills by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,663,157 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $101,671,000 after purchasing an additional 33,853 shares during the period. Zimmer Partners LP purchased a new stake in shares of Black Hills in the 3rd quarter worth about $96,374,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Black Hills by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,225,653 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $71,725,000 after purchasing an additional 39,369 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of Black Hills by 109.8% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 882,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $53,356,000 after purchasing an additional 461,894 shares during the period. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Black Hills by 19.3% in the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 551,582 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $32,279,000 after purchasing an additional 89,181 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of Black Hills from $67.00 to $66.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th.

Black Hills Trading Up 3.3 %

Shares of NYSE BKH opened at $61.27 on Friday. Black Hills Co. has a 1 year low of $50.72 and a 1 year high of $65.59. The stock has a market cap of $4.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.68. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $59.05 and a 200 day moving average of $60.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.77.

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by $0.17. Black Hills had a net margin of 12.84% and a return on equity of 7.82%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Black Hills Co. will post 4.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Black Hills Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were paid a dividend of $0.676 per share. This is a positive change from Black Hills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. This represents a $2.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. Black Hills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 68.88%.

Black Hills Company Profile

Black Hills Corporation, through its subsidiaries, operates as an electric and natural gas utility company in the United States. The company operates in two segments: Electric Utilities and Gas Utilities. The Electric Utilities segment generates, transmits, and distributes electricity to approximately 222,000 electric utility customers in Colorado, Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming; and owns and operates 1,394 megawatts of generation capacity and 9,106 miles of electric transmission and distribution lines.