Wells Fargo & Company Upgrades Northwest Natural Gas (NYSE:NWN) to Strong Sell

Northwest Natural Gas (NYSE:NWN) was upgraded by Wells Fargo & Company to a “strong sell” rating in a note issued to investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Northwest Natural Gas from $52.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Freedom Capital raised shares of Northwest Natural Gas from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Northwest Natural Gas in a report on Friday, January 30th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Northwest Natural Gas from a “hold (c)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Finally, TD Cowen initiated coverage on shares of Northwest Natural Gas in a report on Thursday, April 16th. They set a “hold” rating and a $58.00 target price on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $55.25.

Northwest Natural Gas Price Performance

NWN stock opened at $50.14 on Monday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $52.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $49.44. The stock has a market cap of $2.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.11 and a beta of 0.47. Northwest Natural Gas has a 1 year low of $39.10 and a 1 year high of $55.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.44, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

Northwest Natural Gas (NYSE:NWN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The utilities provider reported $2.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.40 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $490.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $538.57 million. Northwest Natural Gas had a return on equity of 8.46% and a net margin of 9.56%.Northwest Natural Gas’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.28 earnings per share. Northwest Natural Gas has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.950-3.150 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Northwest Natural Gas will post 3.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Northwest Natural Gas

In other news, VP David A. Weber sold 1,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.57, for a total value of $89,369.00. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,832.93. This represents a 91.94% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 1,704 shares of company stock valued at $89,579. Corporate insiders own 0.55% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Northwest Natural Gas

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Northwest Natural Gas by 6.7% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,083,304 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $82,749,000 after purchasing an additional 131,019 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Northwest Natural Gas by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 989,578 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $46,261,000 after purchasing an additional 16,297 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Northwest Natural Gas by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 860,956 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $38,683,000 after purchasing an additional 3,512 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Northwest Natural Gas by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 743,512 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $39,571,000 after purchasing an additional 18,669 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Northwest Natural Gas by 74.2% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 587,016 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $27,437,000 after purchasing an additional 250,025 shares during the last quarter. 75.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Northwest Natural Gas

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.