Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) saw a large increase in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,930,000 shares, an increase of 19.9% from the February 13th total of 1,610,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 484,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.0 days. Approximately 2.7% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of BKH. Atria Investments Inc grew its holdings in shares of Black Hills by 18.7% during the third quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 5,874 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $359,000 after purchasing an additional 926 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Black Hills by 14.1% during the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 20,034 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,224,000 after purchasing an additional 2,475 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its holdings in shares of Black Hills by 19.3% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 210,768 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,882,000 after purchasing an additional 34,129 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank grew its holdings in shares of Black Hills by 0.4% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 134,679 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $8,232,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Meeder Advisory Services Inc. lifted its position in Black Hills by 9.7% in the 3rd quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 13,182 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $806,000 after buying an additional 1,170 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Scotiabank decreased their price objective on Black Hills from $67.00 to $66.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th.

Black Hills Price Performance

BKH stock traded up $0.19 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $60.68. 496,581 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 420,136. 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 capitalization of $4.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.68. Black Hills has a 52-week low of $50.73 and a 52-week high of $65.59. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $59.33 and a 200-day moving average price of $60.08.

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) last posted 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 return on equity of 7.82% and a net margin of 12.84%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Black Hills 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. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a dividend of $0.676 per share. This is a positive change from Black Hills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.46%. Black Hills’s payout ratio is presently 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.