River Road Asset Management LLC Has $110.34 Million Holdings in NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:NWE)

River Road Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:NWE) by 35.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,168,217 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 562,548 shares during the period. NorthWestern Energy Group comprises 1.5% of River Road Asset Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 15th largest holding. River Road Asset Management LLC owned 3.54% of NorthWestern Energy Group worth $110,341,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Swiss National Bank boosted its position in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 131,383 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,314,000 after acquiring an additional 1,300 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group by 48.8% during the 3rd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 38,784 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,864,000 after acquiring an additional 12,718 shares in the last quarter. Comerica Bank bought a new position in NorthWestern Energy Group in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $5,689,000. Algert Global LLC lifted its stake in NorthWestern Energy Group by 23.8% in the 3rd quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 101,280 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,868,000 after purchasing an additional 19,481 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alps Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in NorthWestern Energy Group by 84.6% in the 3rd quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 9,294 shares of the company’s stock valued at $447,000 after purchasing an additional 4,259 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of NorthWestern Energy Group from $48.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Guggenheim raised shares of NorthWestern Energy Group from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $47.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of NorthWestern Energy Group from $53.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. KeyCorp reaffirmed a “sector weight” rating on shares of NorthWestern Energy Group in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of NorthWestern Energy Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NorthWestern Energy Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $51.71.

NorthWestern Energy Group Stock Up 1.3 %

NYSE:NWE traded up $0.62 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $48.52. The company had a trading volume of 316,774 shares, compared to its average volume of 405,421. The company has a quick ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97. The firm has a market cap of $2.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.88 and a beta of 0.43. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $48.93 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $49.42. NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. has a twelve month low of $45.97 and a twelve month high of $60.56.

NorthWestern Energy Group (NYSE:NWE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The company reported $1.38 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $356.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $443.27 million. NorthWestern Energy Group had a net margin of 13.64% and a return on equity of 7.23%. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.13 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. will post 3.53 earnings per share for the current year.

NorthWestern Energy Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.36%. This is a boost from NorthWestern Energy Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.64. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. NorthWestern Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 80.75%.

NorthWestern Energy Group 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.