Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE:SWX) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE:SWX) has been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the eight brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $88.40.

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on SWX shares. Citigroup upgraded shares of Southwest Gas from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $82.00 to $99.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Mizuho set a $96.00 target price on shares of Southwest Gas in a research report on Wednesday, February 11th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Southwest Gas in a research report on Monday, December 29th.

Southwest Gas Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of SWX stock traded up $0.62 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $88.79. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 68,767 shares, compared to its average volume of 725,097. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87. Southwest Gas has a one year low of $64.69 and a one year high of $89.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.63. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $83.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $80.93.

Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $1.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.40 by ($0.04). Southwest Gas had a net margin of 14.77% and a return on equity of 6.62%. The company had revenue of $480.74 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $587.01 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.39 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 13.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Southwest Gas has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.170-4.320 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Southwest Gas will post 3.03 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Southwest Gas

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SWX. New York State Common Retirement Fund grew its stake in shares of Southwest Gas by 30.6% in the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 224,650 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $17,599,000 after acquiring an additional 52,573 shares during the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of Southwest Gas by 6.2% in the 2nd quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 175,095 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $13,025,000 after purchasing an additional 10,150 shares during the last quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH boosted its stake in Southwest Gas by 547.9% in the 3rd quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH now owns 23,319 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,827,000 after purchasing an additional 19,720 shares in the last quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC grew its position in Southwest Gas by 32.1% during the 3rd quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC now owns 930,695 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $72,911,000 after purchasing an additional 226,231 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in Southwest Gas by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 763,318 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $56,783,000 after purchasing an additional 14,875 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.77% of the company’s stock.

Southwest Gas Company Profile

Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE: SWX) is a publicly traded natural gas utility that provides regulated gas distribution services to residential, commercial, industrial and electric generation customers. The company’s core activities include the transportation, distribution and sale of natural gas through an extensive network of pipelines, service lines and metering facilities. Southwest Gas also offers related services such as system maintenance, pipeline safety inspections, emergency response and line extensions to support customer growth and ensure reliable gas delivery.

Founded in 1931 in southern Nevada, Southwest Gas has grown through strategic acquisitions and organic expansion to become one of the nation’s larger natural gas utilities by customer count.