Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) Stock Holdings Trimmed by Moors & Cabot Inc.

Moors & Cabot Inc. lessened its position in shares of Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) by 4.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,779 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 300 shares during the period. Moors & Cabot Inc.’s holdings in Black Hills were worth $397,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BKH. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Black Hills by 66.8% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 432 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. lifted its holdings in Black Hills by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 6,716 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $393,000 after acquiring an additional 263 shares during the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue boosted its stake in Black Hills by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 8,162 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $477,000 after acquiring an additional 270 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in shares of Black Hills by 83.3% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 625 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 284 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC raised its position in shares of Black Hills by 182.8% during the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 461 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 298 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Scotiabank reduced 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 Trading Up 3.3 %

Shares of NYSE:BKH opened at $61.27 on Friday. Black Hills Co. has a fifty-two week low of $50.72 and a fifty-two week high of $65.59. The company has a quick ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. The company has a market cap of $4.39 billion, a PE ratio of 15.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.68. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $59.05 and its 200 day moving average price is $60.04.

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Black Hills Co. will post 4.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Black Hills Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a dividend of $0.676 per share. This represents a $2.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.41%. This is a positive change from Black Hills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. Black Hills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.88%.

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.