Magellan Asset Management Ltd Sells 10,533 Shares of Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH)

Magellan Asset Management Ltd decreased its stake in shares of Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) by 17.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 48,356 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 10,533 shares during the period. Magellan Asset Management Ltd’s holdings in Black Hills were worth $2,830,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in BKH. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Black Hills by 4,751.1% in the fourth quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 16,154 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $945,000 after purchasing an additional 15,821 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC grew its stake in Black Hills by 19.3% in the 3rd quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 102,335 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,257,000 after buying an additional 16,522 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 33,853 shares during the period. Verition Fund Management LLC lifted its position in Black Hills by 264.8% during the 3rd quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 28,139 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,720,000 after acquiring an additional 20,425 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Black Hills by 16.0% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 408,877 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $24,991,000 after acquiring an additional 56,440 shares during the period. 86.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Black Hills Price Performance

Shares of Black Hills stock opened at $61.23 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.77. The company has a market cap of $4.41 billion, a PE ratio of 15.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.68. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $59.78 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $60.10. Black Hills Co. has a fifty-two week low of $50.73 and a fifty-two week high of $65.59.

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.17. Black Hills had a net margin of 12.84% and a return on equity of 7.82%. Analysts expect 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. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were given a dividend of $0.676 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. This is a boost from Black Hills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. This represents a $2.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.42%. Black Hills’s payout ratio is currently 68.88%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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 research 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.