Smith Moore & CO. Has $821,000 Position in Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH)

Smith Moore & CO. lifted its holdings in shares of Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) by 4.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 14,032 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 590 shares during the period. Smith Moore & CO.’s holdings in Black Hills were worth $821,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of BKH. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP acquired a new position in Black Hills during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,946,000. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Black Hills by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,698,234 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $99,402,000 after buying an additional 35,077 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Black Hills by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 897,245 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $52,507,000 after buying an additional 14,599 shares during the last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Black Hills by 17.5% in the fourth quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 11,615 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $680,000 after buying an additional 1,732 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New Age Alpha Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Black Hills during the fourth quarter worth $71,000. Institutional investors own 86.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Scotiabank decreased their price objective on shares of 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 Stock Performance

BKH opened at $58.33 on Friday. 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 stock has a market cap of $4.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.88, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.64. Black Hills Co. has a 12-month low of $50.73 and a 12-month high of $65.59. The business has a 50 day moving average of $59.86 and a 200-day moving average of $60.09.

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

Black Hills Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a $0.676 dividend. This is a boost from Black Hills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.64%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. Black Hills’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.