Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. Has $4.05 Million Position in Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH)

Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. cut its stake in shares of Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) by 23.5% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 74,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 22,855 shares during the quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc.’s holdings in Black Hills were worth $4,051,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of BKH. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in Black Hills by 17.1% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 3,251,722 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $175,430,000 after buying an additional 475,768 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Black Hills by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,143,567 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $439,345,000 after acquiring an additional 322,271 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of Black Hills by 640.8% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 256,527 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $13,840,000 after acquiring an additional 221,898 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Black Hills by 36.9% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 755,095 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $40,737,000 after acquiring an additional 203,340 shares in the last quarter. Finally, WealthPlan Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Black Hills by 10,111.4% in the 3rd quarter. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC now owns 176,146 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $8,911,000 after acquiring an additional 174,421 shares in the last quarter. 86.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on BKH. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Black Hills from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 4th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Black Hills from $56.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 10th. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on Black Hills from $58.00 to $54.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com raised Black Hills from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.60.

Insider Transactions at Black Hills

In other news, Director Rebecca B. Roberts sold 3,094 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.84, for a total value of $169,674.96. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 7,956 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $436,307.04. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.63% of the company’s stock.

Black Hills Stock Performance

Shares of Black Hills stock opened at $54.27 on Wednesday. Black Hills Co. has a one year low of $46.43 and a one year high of $61.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.37 and a beta of 0.69. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $54.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $53.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.61.

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $726.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $683.00 million. Black Hills had a return on equity of 8.37% and a net margin of 12.92%. The firm’s revenue was down 21.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.73 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Black Hills Co. will post 3.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Black Hills Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th were paid a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. Black Hills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 64.04%.

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.