Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) Stock Rating Upgraded by Wall Street Zen

Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on SWX. Wolfe Research raised shares of Southwest Gas from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Scotiabank initiated coverage on shares of Southwest Gas in a research report on Tuesday, September 29th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $95.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Southwest Gas from $105.00 to $107.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $106.00 target price on shares of Southwest Gas in a research note on Monday, October 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Southwest Gas from $102.00 to $101.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and seven have assigned a Buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $101.25.

Southwest Gas Stock Performance

Shares of Southwest Gas stock opened at $91.49 on Friday. Southwest Gas has a one year low of $78.37 and a one year high of $94.46. The company has a market cap of $6.63 billion, a PE ratio of 22.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.89. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $87.12 and a 200-day simple moving average of $88.35.

Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 4th. The utilities provider reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.06. Southwest Gas had a net margin of 17.23% and a return on equity of 6.98%. The firm had revenue of $298.18 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $346.50 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.74 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Southwest Gas will post 4.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Southwest Gas news, SVP Julie Williams sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.81, for a total value of $204,525.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 26,450 shares in the company, valued at $2,163,874.50. This represents a 8.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.63% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Southwest Gas

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Fisher Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Southwest Gas during the third quarter worth approximately $2,687,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its position in Southwest Gas by 31.8% in the 3rd quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 310,377 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $25,308,000 after purchasing an additional 74,881 shares during the last quarter. Eurizon Capital SGR S.p.A. raised its position in Southwest Gas by 169.5% in the 3rd quarter. Eurizon Capital SGR S.p.A. now owns 318 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. R Squared Ltd raised its position in Southwest Gas by 107.0% in the 3rd quarter. R Squared Ltd now owns 7,656 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $624,000 after purchasing an additional 3,957 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Maryland State Retirement & Pension System boosted its stake in Southwest Gas by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 62,346 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,084,000 after purchasing an additional 1,279 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.77% of the company’s stock.

Southwest Gas Company Profile

Southwest Gas provides regulated natural gas distribution service to homes and businesses in the southwestern United States. Its utility operations include delivering natural gas through local pipeline networks and maintaining the infrastructure needed to serve customers.

The company serves customers in Arizona and Nevada, as well as parts of California. Its service area includes major metropolitan regions and smaller communities across these states.

Southwest Gas traces its history to 1931 and is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada.