HighTower Advisors LLC Acquires 43,089 Shares of Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH)

HighTower Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) by 42.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 145,424 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 43,089 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC owned approximately 0.20% of Black Hills worth $8,510,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Atria Investments Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Black Hills by 18.7% in the 3rd quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 5,874 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $359,000 after buying an additional 926 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Black Hills by 14.1% in the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 20,034 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,224,000 after buying an additional 2,475 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its holdings in shares of Black Hills by 19.3% in the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 210,768 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,882,000 after buying an additional 34,129 shares during the last quarter. Swiss National Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Black Hills by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 134,679 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $8,232,000 after buying an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meeder Advisory Services Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Black Hills by 9.7% in the 3rd quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 13,182 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $806,000 after buying an additional 1,170 shares during the last quarter. 86.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Black Hills Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of Black Hills stock opened at $61.34 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $59.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $60.07. Black Hills Co. has a 1 year low of $50.73 and a 1 year high of $65.59. The company has a market capitalization of $4.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.68. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.17. Black Hills had a return on equity of 7.82% and a net margin of 12.84%. Research analysts forecast that Black Hills Co. will post 4.12 EPS for the current 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 given a dividend of $0.676 per share. This is a boost from Black Hills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.41%. Black Hills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.88%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

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.