Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) Shares Sold by Platform Technology Partners

Platform Technology Partners trimmed its holdings in Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) by 3.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,908 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 187 shares during the quarter. Platform Technology Partners’ holdings in Black Hills were worth $346,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its stake in Black Hills by 19.3% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 210,768 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,882,000 after buying an additional 34,129 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Black Hills by 4,751.1% during the 4th quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 16,154 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $945,000 after acquiring an additional 15,821 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Black Hills by 19.3% in the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 102,335 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,257,000 after purchasing an additional 16,522 shares during the period. CWA Asset Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in Black Hills during the third quarter worth about $1,807,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Black Hills by 2.1% during the third 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 last quarter. 86.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of Black Hills from $67.00 to $66.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $61.00.

Black Hills Stock Performance

NYSE BKH opened at $59.46 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $59.02 and a 200-day simple moving average of $59.66. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20. The stock has a market cap of $4.26 billion, a PE ratio of 15.98, a P/E/G ratio of 4.21 and a beta of 0.73. Black Hills Co. has a twelve month low of $49.50 and a twelve month high of $65.59.

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.17. Black Hills had a net margin of 12.00% and a return on equity of 7.43%. Equities analysts anticipate that Black Hills Co. will post 3.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Black Hills Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be given a $0.676 dividend. This is a positive change from Black Hills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.55%. Black Hills’s payout ratio is presently 69.89%.

Black Hills 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.