Forensic Analysis · Utilities · as of Aug 11, 2026

Northwestern Energy Group, Inc. (NWE)

A forensic read on Northwestern Energy Group, Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.

D · Weak — demands caution

Forensic grade

Grey Zone

Financial health

1.3

Distress distance

Clean

Earnings quality

Forensic signals

25.2

P / E (ttm)

6.3%

ROE

$4.4B

Market cap

3.81%

Dividend yield

6.4%

Revenue growth

This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.

Northwestern Energy Group, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.3, placing it in the Grey zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.

What the filings flag

3.7%

FY2025

Return on invested capital. Return on invested capital is 3.7% in the latest fiscal year and steady — well below its ~6% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.

FCF ($130M)

FY2025

Shareholder returns. Returned $161M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025, but free cash flow was ($130M) after capex — there was no free cash flow to fund the payout from at all, though operating cash flow alone was $394M — 41% of that. The entire return is coming from debt or cash reserves, not cash the business itself generated — a harder case than returns merely running ahead of free cash flow, since here there was none to run ahead of.

+1.0%/yr

FY2023–FY2025

Share count. Diluted share count changed +2% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+1.0%/yr). Roughly flat — the count is neither shrinking nor growing meaningfully. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.

Key fundamentals

Latest Revenue$1.61B

Revenue Growth YoY+6.4%

Net Margin11.2%

Free Cash Flow-$130.0M

Return on Equity6.3%

Debt / Equity1.14x

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Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Aug 11, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.