Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE:SWX) Given Average Rating of “Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE:SWX) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the eight ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, five have given a buy recommendation and two have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $97.2857.

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Southwest Gas from $99.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Southwest Gas from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $100.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. UBS Group set a $100.00 price target on Southwest Gas in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Wall Street Zen raised Southwest Gas from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, July 12th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Southwest Gas from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 9th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Southwest Gas in the 4th quarter valued at about $66,930,000. BROOKFIELD Corp ON raised its holdings in shares of Southwest Gas by 106.9% in the 1st quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 699,626 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $60,797,000 after purchasing an additional 361,556 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its stake in Southwest Gas by 281.2% during the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 459,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $39,887,000 after purchasing an additional 338,600 shares during the last quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON bought a new stake in Southwest Gas during the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,052,000. Finally, Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. grew its position in Southwest Gas by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 1,648,496 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $131,913,000 after buying an additional 228,496 shares during the last quarter. 92.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Southwest Gas Trading Down 0.7%

NYSE:SWX traded down $0.61 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $91.19. 6,432 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 577,788. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $89.60 and a 200 day simple moving average of $88.18. The firm has a market cap of $6.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.20, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 1.32. Southwest Gas has a 52-week low of $75.75 and a 52-week high of $94.46.

Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.88 by $0.03. Southwest Gas had a net margin of 19.95% and a return on equity of 6.95%. The firm had revenue of $585.12 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $695.52 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.58 earnings per share. Southwest Gas’s revenue was down 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Southwest Gas has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.170-4.320 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Southwest Gas will post 4.27 EPS for the current year.

Southwest Gas Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Investors of record on Monday, August 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.645 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 17th. This represents a $2.58 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.8%. Southwest Gas’s payout ratio is presently 37.39%.

About Southwest Gas

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.