Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.17 EPS

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The utilities provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.17, Briefing.com reports. Black Hills had a return on equity of 8.09% and a net margin of 11.25%. The firm had revenue of $726.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $683.00 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.73 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 21.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Black Hills updated its FY24 guidance to $3.80-4.00 EPS.

Black Hills Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BKH traded up $0.29 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $57.87. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 101,251 shares, compared to its average volume of 537,320. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.70 and a beta of 0.64. Black Hills has a one year low of $46.43 and a one year high of $66.43. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $53.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $52.60. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Black Hills Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.49%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. Black Hills’s payout ratio is currently 66.33%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on BKH. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on Black Hills from $61.00 to $57.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 9th. Scotiabank dropped their target price on Black Hills from $58.00 to $54.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have assigned a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Black Hills presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.00.

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.