BlackRock Fund Advisors recently announced the acquisition of new stake in NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ:NWE). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Utilities company by 1.33% to 7.67 million shares with purchase of 0.1 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 13.28% valued currently at $455.22 million. In addition, The Vanguard Group, Inc. raised its holdings by 0.29 million to 5.87 million shares. And American Century Investment Manag has lifted its position by 13.57% or 0.4 million shares – to 3.39 million shares.
With over 0.38 million NorthWestern Corporation (NWE) shares trading Tuesday and a closing price of $58.06 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $22.31 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 3.46% and its price on 01/17/23 lost nearly -0.92%. Currently, there are 57.78M common shares owned by the public and among those 57.19M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 7 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for NWE have a consensus price objective of $58.00. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $68.00 and a low of $48.00. The average price target is -1.19% below its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -20.96% over that period. But an upside of 14.62% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $57.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 41 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 32 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 90,474 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 9 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 27,532 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in NorthWestern Corporation are American Century Mid Cap Value Fu, iShares Core S&P Mid Cap ETF, and Vanguard Total Stock Market Index. American Century Mid Cap Value Fu owns 2.41 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $142.94 million. The company bought an additional 0.26 million shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 4.17% of the shares outstanding. iShares Core S&P Mid Cap ETF sold 340.0 shares to see its total holdings shrink to 1.78 million shares valued at over $105.78 million and representing 3.09% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index bought 2351.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 1.69 million shares at a value of $100.29 million. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index now owns shares totaling to 2.93% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ: NWE) opened at $58.91, up $0.31 from a prior closing price of $58.60. However, the script later moved the day high at 59.11, down -0.92%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -0.89% and 14.99% over the past three months. NWE shares are trading -2.16% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 2.00% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $48.68 and touched a high of $63.06 over the same period. NWE has an average intraday trading volume of 371.46K shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -0.62%, 2.32%, and 2.84% respectively.
Institutional ownership of NorthWestern Corporation (NASDAQ: NWE) shares accounts for 99.86% of the company’s 57.78M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 33.54%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 65.63% and 16.73% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $3.38B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 0.48. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 18.97, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $3.06. The company has a PEG of 4.22 and a Quick Ratio of 0.60 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 1.01. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 1.28% over the week and 1.63% over the month.
Analysts forecast that NorthWestern Corporation (NWE) will achieve an EPS of $1.11 for the current quarter, $1.08 for the next quarter and $3.48 for 2023. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $0.97 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $1.23. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $1.04 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 17.70%, and 6.71% over the next financial year. EPS should grow at an annualized rate of 4.50% over the next five years, compared to 1.20% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 7 brokerage firm advisors rate NorthWestern Corporation (NWE) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.40. Specifically, 2 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 5 of the 7 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the NWE, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. JP Morgan stated their Neutral rating for the stock in a research note on November 01, 2022, with the firm’s price target at $55. BofA Securities coverage for the NorthWestern Corporation (NWE) stock in a research note released on September 29, 2022 offered a Buy rating with a price target of $56. BofA Securities was of a view on May 31, 2022 that the stock is Underperform, while Barclays gave the stock Equal Weight rating on April 19, 2022, issuing a price target of $57- $62. Sidoti on their part issued Neutral rating on April 06, 2022.
