Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.68

Black Hills Co. (NYSE:BKH - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 22nd, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a dividend of 0.676 per share by the utilities provider on Sunday, June 1st. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.45%.

Black Hills has increased its dividend by an average of 4.3% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 55 years. Black Hills has a payout ratio of 62.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Black Hills to earn $4.36 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.70 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 61.9%.

Black Hills Price Performance

BKH stock traded up $0.98 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $60.70. The stock had a trading volume of 487,794 shares, compared to its average volume of 457,328. Black Hills has a 52-week low of $51.66 and a 52-week high of $65.59. The company has a market cap of $4.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.64. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $59.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $59.90. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19.

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, beating 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Black Hills will post 4.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Scotiabank dropped 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 report on Friday, February 7th.

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.

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