Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Purchases 1,315 Shares of Northwest Natural Gas Company $NWN

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS grew its position in Northwest Natural Gas Company (NYSE:NWN) by 1.7% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 77,631 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,315 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in Northwest Natural Gas were worth $3,084,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. MCF Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Northwest Natural Gas in the first quarter valued at $38,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Northwest Natural Gas by 44.3% in the 2nd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 1,143 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 351 shares during the period. IFM Investors Pty Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Northwest Natural Gas in the 1st quarter valued at about $204,000. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Northwest Natural Gas by 178.9% during the 2nd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,300 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $211,000 after purchasing an additional 3,400 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers acquired a new stake in Northwest Natural Gas during the first quarter worth approximately $214,000. 75.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have issued reports on NWN shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Northwest Natural Gas in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Northwest Natural Gas from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 12th. BTIG Research raised shares of Northwest Natural Gas to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Northwest Natural Gas to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $50.67.

Insider Buying and Selling at Northwest Natural Gas

In related news, Director David Hugo Anderson sold 7,468 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.95, for a total value of $358,090.60. Following the transaction, the director owned 36,954 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,771,944.30. This trade represents a 16.81% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 42,763 shares of company stock valued at $1,934,461. Corporate insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Northwest Natural Gas Trading Down 1.0%

NYSE NWN opened at $47.10 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.43. Northwest Natural Gas Company has a 52 week low of $38.03 and a 52 week high of $48.50. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $45.28 and a 200-day moving average price of $42.45. The company has a market cap of $1.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.62 and a beta of 0.57.

Northwest Natural Gas (NYSE:NWN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The utilities provider reported ($0.73) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.82) by $0.09. The business had revenue of $164.73 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $174.66 million. Northwest Natural Gas had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 8.60%. Northwest Natural Gas’s revenue was up 20.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.71) EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Northwest Natural Gas Company will post 2.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Northwest Natural Gas Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 31st were given a dividend of $0.4925 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 31st. This is a boost from Northwest Natural Gas’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.49. This represents a $1.97 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.2%. Northwest Natural Gas’s payout ratio is presently 78.49%.

Northwest Natural Gas Profile

Northwest Natural Holding Company, through its subsidiary, Northwest Natural Gas Company, provides regulated natural gas distribution services to residential, commercial, and industrial customers in the United States. The company operates a mist gas storage facility contracted to other utilities, third-party marketers, and electric generators; offers natural gas asset management services; and operates an appliance retail center.