15,991 Shares in Northwest Natural Gas Company $NWN Bought by CenterBook Partners LP

CenterBook Partners LP acquired a new position in shares of Northwest Natural Gas Company (NYSE:NWN) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 15,991 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $746,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Northwest Natural Gas by 37.4% in the third quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 201,546 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,406,000 after purchasing an additional 54,852 shares during the period. Vise Technologies Inc. boosted its position in shares of Northwest Natural Gas by 17.6% during the third quarter. Vise Technologies Inc. now owns 9,227 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $431,000 after purchasing an additional 1,380 shares in the last quarter. Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Northwest Natural Gas in the 3rd quarter valued at $239,000. State of Wyoming grew its holdings in shares of Northwest Natural Gas by 250.4% in the 3rd quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 4,313 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $201,000 after buying an additional 3,082 shares during the period. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Northwest Natural Gas by 7.1% in the 3rd quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 3,794 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $177,000 after buying an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Weiss Ratings downgraded Northwest Natural Gas from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Monday. Mizuho assumed coverage on Northwest Natural Gas in a report on Thursday, October 22nd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $51.00 target price on the stock. Truist Financial initiated coverage on Northwest Natural Gas in a research note on Tuesday, October 27th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $54.00 target price for the company. BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating and issued a $59.00 price target on shares of Northwest Natural Gas in a report on Friday. Finally, Huntington assumed coverage on Northwest Natural Gas in a report on Friday, November 6th. They issued a “strong-buy” rating for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $55.43.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director David Anderson sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.71, for a total value of $73,065.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 47,759 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,326,340.89. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 4,500 shares of company stock valued at $221,400. Insiders own 0.55% of the company’s stock.

Northwest Natural Gas Stock Performance

Shares of NWN stock opened at $51.89 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.68, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.82. Northwest Natural Gas Company has a 52 week low of $45.69 and a 52 week high of $55.99. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $48.88 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $50.23. The company has a market capitalization of $2.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.23 and a beta of 0.41.

Northwest Natural Gas (NYSE:NWN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported ($0.71) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.88) by $0.17. The company had revenue of $177.97 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $176.40 million. Northwest Natural Gas had a net margin of 9.65% and a return on equity of 8.23%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.73) earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Northwest Natural Gas Company will post 3.10 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Northwest Natural Gas Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 13th. Investors of record on Friday, October 30th will be given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 30th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.9%. This is an increase from Northwest Natural Gas’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.4925. Northwest Natural Gas’s payout ratio is presently 66.23%.

Northwest Natural Gas Company Profile

Northwest Natural Gas, now organized as NW Natural Holdings, is a utility company whose principal business is the distribution of natural gas through its NW Natural subsidiary. The company serves residential, commercial and industrial customers in Oregon and southwest Washington. Founded in 1859 as the Portland Gas Light Company, the business has grown from a local gas provider into a regional utility. Its operations also include natural gas storage and, through subsidiaries, water and wastewater services.