Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) Price Target Raised to $47.00

Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) had its price target raised by Stifel Nicolaus from $44.00 to $47.00 in a research note released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the oil and gas company’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on NGS. Zacks Research lowered shares of Natural Gas Services Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 24th. Raymond James Financial lowered shares of Natural Gas Services Group from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $34.00 to $42.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Natural Gas Services Group has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.50.

Natural Gas Services Group Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of Natural Gas Services Group stock opened at $42.36 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $533.79 million, a PE ratio of 24.63 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a current ratio of 2.70, a quick ratio of 1.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $38.85 and its 200 day moving average is $35.25. Natural Gas Services Group has a 1 year low of $22.72 and a 1 year high of $43.27.

Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 11th. The oil and gas company reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $48.47 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $47.09 million. Natural Gas Services Group had a net margin of 12.17% and a return on equity of 7.99%. Equities research analysts forecast that Natural Gas Services Group will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Natural Gas Services Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 20th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 20th. This is a boost from Natural Gas Services Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. Natural Gas Services Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.58%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Stephen Charles Taylor sold 70,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.58, for a total transaction of $2,630,600.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 205,432 shares in the company, valued at $7,720,134.56. The trade was a 25.41% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 3.12% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Weber Capital Management LLC ADV acquired a new position in shares of Natural Gas Services Group during the 4th quarter valued at $16,777,000. Phocas Financial Corp. acquired a new position in shares of Natural Gas Services Group during the 4th quarter valued at $1,470,000. Acuitas Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of Natural Gas Services Group by 8.2% during the 3rd quarter. Acuitas Investments LLC now owns 216,700 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $6,065,000 after acquiring an additional 16,500 shares during the period. Cannell Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Natural Gas Services Group by 8.3% during the 3rd quarter. Cannell Capital LLC now owns 359,021 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $10,049,000 after acquiring an additional 27,405 shares during the period. Finally, Calamos Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Natural Gas Services Group during the 4th quarter valued at $698,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 65.62% of the company’s stock.

Natural Gas Services Group Company Profile

Natural Gas Services Group, Inc (NYSE: NGS) is an energy infrastructure company specializing in natural gas distribution and compression services across the United States. The company operates two primary lines of business: the Distribution segment provides natural gas delivery to residential, commercial and industrial customers, while the Compression Services segment rents, sells and services a diversified fleet of compression equipment for midstream and industrial applications.

In its Distribution segment, Natural Gas Services Group engineers, constructs and maintains local pipeline networks, meters and related apparatus to ensure safe and reliable natural gas supply to municipal utilities and private customers.