Northwest Natural Gas (NYSE:NWN) Stock Picked Up by Analysts at Truist Financial

Analysts at Truist Financial initiated coverage on shares of Northwest Natural Gas (NYSE:NWN) in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, Briefing.com reports. The brokerage set a “hold” rating and a $54.00 price target on the utilities provider’s stock. Truist Financial‘s price target would indicate a potential upside of 8.18% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on NWN. Weiss Ratings downgraded Northwest Natural Gas from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Friday, October 16th. Huntington initiated coverage on shares of Northwest Natural Gas in a report on Monday, September 14th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $58.00 target price on the stock. BTIG Research set a $56.00 price objective on Northwest Natural Gas in a research report on Tuesday, October 20th. Mizuho initiated coverage on shares of Northwest Natural Gas in a research report on Thursday. They set a “neutral” rating and a $51.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded Northwest Natural Gas to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $54.86.

Northwest Natural Gas Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of NWN stock opened at $49.92 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.62 and a beta of 0.40. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $48.74 and a 200 day moving average price of $49.98. The company has a quick ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52. Northwest Natural Gas has a 12-month low of $44.45 and a 12-month high of $55.99.

Northwest Natural Gas (NYSE:NWN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The utilities provider reported $0.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.08) by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $243.55 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $271.87 million. Northwest Natural Gas had a return on equity of 8.33% and a net margin of 9.75%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.01 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Northwest Natural Gas will post 3.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Northwest Natural Gas

In other 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 sale, the director owned 47,759 shares in the company, valued at $2,326,340.89. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 4,500 shares of company stock valued at $221,400 in the last 90 days. 0.55% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Northwest Natural Gas

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Northwest Natural Gas by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 743,512 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $39,571,000 after acquiring an additional 18,669 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Northwest Natural Gas in the second quarter worth about $24,160,000. Allianz Asset Management GmbH bought a new position in Northwest Natural Gas in the 2nd quarter valued at $16,287,000. Edgestream Partners L.P. increased its stake in Northwest Natural Gas by 54.1% in the 1st quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 201,660 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $10,732,000 after acquiring an additional 70,773 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Baird Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Northwest Natural Gas by 12.8% during the 2nd quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 194,795 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $9,557,000 after acquiring an additional 22,055 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.13% of the company’s stock.

Northwest Natural Gas Company Profile

Northwest Natural Gas Company, operating as NW Natural and a subsidiary of Northwest Natural Holding Company, is an energy and utility company headquartered in Portland, Oregon. Its principal business is the distribution of natural gas to residential, commercial and industrial customers.

NW Natural serves communities primarily in Oregon and southwest Washington through a regulated natural gas distribution system. The company also provides related services, including natural gas storage and programs focused on renewable natural gas and other lower-carbon energy solutions.

The company traces its history to 1859 and has expanded beyond its traditional natural gas operations through investments in water and wastewater utilities.