Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) Share Price Passes Above Two Hundred Day Moving Average – Here’s What Happened

Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:NGS) passed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Thursday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of $28.90 and traded as high as $34.87. Natural Gas Services Group shares last traded at $34.4350, with a volume of 169,043 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on NGS. Raymond James Financial downgraded shares of Natural Gas Services Group from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $34.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Natural Gas Services Group from $33.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 12th. Zacks Research downgraded Natural Gas Services Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Natural Gas Services Group in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $40.50.

Natural Gas Services Group Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $434.09 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.33 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $33.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.97. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77.

Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) last posted its earnings results on Monday, November 10th. The oil and gas company reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $43.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $43.25 million. Natural Gas Services Group had a return on equity of 7.37% and a net margin of 11.20%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. will post 1.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Natural Gas Services Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 3rd. Investors of record on Thursday, November 20th were given a dividend of $0.11 per share. This is a positive change from Natural Gas Services Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 20th. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. Natural Gas Services Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.73%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Jean K. Holley purchased 2,190 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 8th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $32.04 per share, for a total transaction of $70,167.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 14,390 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $461,055.60. The trade was a 17.95% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Stephen Charles Taylor sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.12, for a total transaction of $642,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 295,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,489,275.84. This represents a 6.34% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 51,252 shares of company stock worth $1,604,077 in the last quarter. 5.08% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Natural Gas Services Group

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Natural Gas Services Group by 831.2% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 12,776 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $281,000 after acquiring an additional 11,404 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Natural Gas Services Group by 5.5% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 98,479 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $2,164,000 after purchasing an additional 5,125 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC acquired a new position in shares of Natural Gas Services Group in the 2nd quarter valued at $819,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC acquired a new stake in Natural Gas Services Group during the 2nd quarter worth about $210,000. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC lifted its stake in Natural Gas Services Group by 117.4% during the second quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 11,420 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $295,000 after buying an additional 6,166 shares in the last quarter. 65.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Natural Gas Services Group Company Profile

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.