Bollard Group LLC Decreases Holdings in Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH)

Bollard Group LLC decreased its position in shares of Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH – Get Rating) by 50.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,676 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 2,701 shares during the quarter. Bollard Group LLC’s holdings in Black Hills were worth $188,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Black Hills by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,969,058 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $472,015,000 after acquiring an additional 151,038 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Black Hills by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,678,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $452,315,000 after buying an additional 178,522 shares in the last quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. lifted its stake in Black Hills by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. now owns 2,600,777 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $176,177,000 after buying an additional 98,568 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in Black Hills by 26.8% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,293,169 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $90,962,000 after buying an additional 273,200 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP lifted its stake in Black Hills by 22.2% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,069,450 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $75,226,000 after buying an additional 194,063 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.96% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on BKH shares. Sidoti lowered Black Hills from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $67.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, February 9th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Black Hills from $71.00 to $65.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 9th. Bank of America lowered Black Hills from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $79.00 to $60.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 8th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered Black Hills from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $81.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Friday, February 10th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Black Hills from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and four have given a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $67.29.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Black Hills news, CFO Richard Kinzley sold 10,033 shares of Black Hills stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.49, for a total value of $657,061.17. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 36,576 shares in the company, valued at $2,395,362.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Black Hills Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of BKH stock traded down $0.21 on Friday, reaching $60.47. 44,598 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 449,418. The stock has a market cap of $4.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.55 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $63.97 and a two-hundred day moving average of $66.51. Black Hills Co. has a 1-year low of $58.81 and a 1-year high of $79.78.

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 3rd. The utilities provider reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.67 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $921.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $754.70 million. Black Hills had a return on equity of 8.33% and a net margin of 9.62%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.82 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Black Hills Co. will post 3.73 EPS for the current year.

Black Hills Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, May 18th will be paid a $0.625 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.13%. Black Hills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 64.10%.

Black Hills Company Profile

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Black Hills Corp. is a diversified energy company. It operates through the following segments: Electric Utilities, Gas Utilities, and Corporate and Other. The Electric Utilities segment generates, transmits, and distributes electricity in Colorado, Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming. The Gas Utilities segment provides natural gas in Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming.