Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) Sets New 12-Month High – Should You Buy?

Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:NGS)’s share price reached a new 52-week high on Monday . The company traded as high as $43.96 and last traded at $43.7810, with a volume of 23511 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $42.40.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NGS has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Natural Gas Services Group from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Zacks Research lowered Natural Gas Services Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 24th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Natural Gas Services Group presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $44.50.

Natural Gas Services Group Stock Up 3.5%

The business has a 50-day moving average price of $38.85 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $35.31. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 2.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The firm has a market cap of $552.81 million, a PE ratio of 25.46 and a beta of 0.43.

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

Natural Gas Services Group Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Natural Gas Services Group news, Director Stephen Charles Taylor sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.23, for a total value of $1,116,900.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 175,432 shares in the company, valued at $6,531,333.36. This trade represents a 14.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 3.12% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Natural Gas Services Group

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT acquired a new stake in Natural Gas Services Group in the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. State of Alaska Department of Revenue purchased a new position in shares of Natural Gas Services Group during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. New York State Common Retirement Fund grew its holdings in shares of Natural Gas Services Group by 106.7% during the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 3,100 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $87,000 after purchasing an additional 1,600 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of Natural Gas Services Group during the fourth quarter worth about $106,000. Finally, Kemnay Advisory Services Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Natural Gas Services Group during the fourth quarter worth about $114,000. 65.62% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Natural Gas Services Group

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.