Teacher Retirement System of Texas Cuts Stock Position in Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas lessened its position in shares of Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) by 75.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,370 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 41,742 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Black Hills were worth $782,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of BKH. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its position 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 in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Black Hills by 8.2% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,919 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $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 valued at $393,000 after buying an additional 263 shares during the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue boosted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 270 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake 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 worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 284 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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 Price Performance

NYSE BKH opened at $60.02 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $59.66 and its 200 day moving average price is $60.08. Black Hills Co. has a 1 year low of $50.73 and a 1 year high of $65.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.77. The company has a market cap of $4.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.31, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.68.

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) last announced 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%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Black Hills Co. will post 4.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Black Hills Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.51%. This is a boost from Black Hills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. Black Hills’s payout ratio is presently 68.88%.

About Black Hills

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.