SG Americas Securities LLC Buys Shares of 14,215 Northwest Natural Gas Company $NWN

SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in shares of Northwest Natural Gas Company (NYSE:NWN) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 14,215 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $639,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Northwest Natural Gas by 5.6% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 106,605 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,554,000 after purchasing an additional 5,644 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its stake in shares of Northwest Natural Gas by 17.8% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 164,729 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $7,037,000 after buying an additional 24,906 shares during the period. Jane Street Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Northwest Natural Gas by 650.9% during the 1st quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 64,966 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,775,000 after buying an additional 56,314 shares during the last quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Northwest Natural Gas during the 2nd quarter worth $531,000. Finally, State of Alaska Department of Revenue grew its stake in shares of Northwest Natural Gas by 8.0% during the 2nd quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 24,006 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $952,000 after acquiring an additional 1,769 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on NWN. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on Northwest Natural Gas from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 12th. BTIG Research upgraded shares of Northwest Natural Gas to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Northwest Natural Gas in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Northwest Natural Gas presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $50.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Northwest Natural Gas news, Director David Hugo Anderson sold 7,468 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.95, for a total value of $358,090.60. Following the sale, the director directly owned 36,954 shares in the company, valued at $1,771,944.30. This represents a 16.81% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Northwest Natural Gas Stock Performance

NYSE:NWN opened at $46.78 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $47.16 and its 200 day moving average is $44.46. The firm has a market cap of $1.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.64 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.59. Northwest Natural Gas Company has a 52-week low of $38.94 and a 52-week high of $49.63.

Northwest Natural Gas (NYSE:NWN) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The utilities provider reported ($0.73) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.82) by $0.09. Northwest Natural Gas had a return on equity of 8.30% and a net margin of 7.94%.The business had revenue of $164.73 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $174.66 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.71) EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 20.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Northwest Natural Gas Company will post 2.33 EPS for the current year.

Northwest Natural Gas Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 13th. Investors of record on Friday, January 30th will be issued a dividend of $1.97 per share. This is a boost from Northwest Natural Gas’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.49. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 30th. This represents a $7.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 16.8%. Northwest Natural Gas’s payout ratio is currently 78.49%.

Northwest Natural Gas Company Profile

Northwest Natural Gas (NYSE: NWN), commonly known as NW Natural, is a publicly traded energy utility primarily engaged in the distribution of natural gas to residential, commercial and industrial customers. Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, the company operates an extensive pipeline network spanning thousands of miles across Oregon and southwest Washington. Its core business activities include gas procurement, system operation and maintenance, safety inspections and customer service support.

Dating back to the mid-19th century, Northwest Natural traces its origins to the Portland Gas Light Company, which first illuminated Portland streets with manufactured gas in 1859.