Great Lakes Advisors LLC Purchases Shares of 179,258 Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH)

Great Lakes Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 179,258 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $10,490,000.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Black Hills by 8.2% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,919 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $171,000 after buying an additional 222 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. raised its stake 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 buying an additional 263 shares in the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue raised 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 worth $477,000 after buying an additional 270 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in Black Hills by 83.3% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 625 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 284 shares in the last quarter. 86.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Scotiabank decreased 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, February 7th.

Black Hills Price Performance

BKH stock opened at $59.03 on Thursday. Black Hills Co. has a 1 year low of $50.72 and a 1 year high of $65.59. The company has a market cap of $4.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.06, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.68. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $58.95 and a 200 day moving average of $60.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.77.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by $0.17. Black Hills had a net margin of 12.84% and a return on equity of 7.82%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Black Hills Co. will post 4.12 EPS for the current year.

Black Hills Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were paid a dividend of $0.676 per share. This is an increase from Black Hills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.58%. Black Hills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 68.88%.

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.