Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC Has $1.68 Million Holdings in Southwest Gas Corporation $SWX

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC lessened its stake in Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE:SWX) by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 22,636 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 490 shares during the quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC’s holdings in Southwest Gas were worth $1,684,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Southwest Gas by 20.9% in the 2nd quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 880 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $65,000 after buying an additional 152 shares during the last quarter. BTC Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Southwest Gas by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. BTC Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,344 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $248,000 after buying an additional 159 shares during the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue boosted its holdings in shares of Southwest Gas by 2.8% in the 1st quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 7,061 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $506,000 after buying an additional 190 shares during the last quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System lifted its holdings in Southwest Gas by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 14,429 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,036,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System lifted its holdings in Southwest Gas by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 16,900 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,213,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Bank of America raised Southwest Gas from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $76.00 to $84.00 in a report on Friday, August 29th. Wall Street Zen raised Southwest Gas from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 27th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Southwest Gas from $82.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Southwest Gas in a report on Saturday, September 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $82.33.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southwest Gas

In other news, major shareholder Carl C. Icahn sold 1,500,000 shares of Southwest Gas stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.91, for a total transaction of $116,865,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 6,032,604 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $470,000,177.64. This trade represents a 19.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.51% of the company’s stock.

Southwest Gas Stock Down 0.2%

SWX opened at $78.26 on Tuesday. Southwest Gas Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $64.69 and a fifty-two week high of $80.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 1.01. The company has a market capitalization of $5.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.20, a P/E/G ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.55. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $78.43 and a 200-day moving average of $74.93.

Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by $0.11. Southwest Gas had a return on equity of 6.98% and a net margin of 4.06%.The company had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.17 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.25 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Southwest Gas Corporation will post 3.03 EPS for the current year.

Southwest Gas Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.62 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 17th. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.2%. Southwest Gas’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 92.54%.

About Southwest Gas

Southwest Gas Holdings, Inc, through its subsidiaries, distributes and transports natural gas in Arizona, Nevada, and California. The company operates through Natural Gas Distribution, Utility Infrastructure Services, and Pipeline and Storage segments. It also provides trenching, installation, and replacement of underground pipes, as well as maintenance services for energy distribution systems.