UPDATE: Williams Capital Initiates Northwestern at Hold

Williams Capital is out with its report today on NorthWestern NWE, initiating NWE at Hold. In a note to clients, Williams Capital writes, "We initiate coverage on NorthWestern Corporation with a Hold investment rating and $35.00 target price on July 14, 2011 at a price of $33.91. Our target price reflects a P/E of 14.3x our 2013 recurring EPS estimate and roughly a 7% total return potential over the next 12 months. Our longer-term enthusiasm for the company's growth prospects is based upon the considerable growth that we see likely at NorthWestern through 2015 that we estimate could produce compounded rate base growth of 8.0%+ and EPS growth of 5%+ over 2010 recurring EPS." At the time of posting, shares of NWE were trading at $33.92, up 0.03% from Wednesday's close.