5,005 Shares in Northwest Natural Gas Company $NWN Acquired by IFM Investors Pty Ltd

IFM Investors Pty Ltd acquired a new stake in Northwest Natural Gas Company (NYSE:NWN) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 5,005 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $204,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Northwest Natural Gas by 2.7% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 199,834 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $8,537,000 after acquiring an additional 5,317 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Northwest Natural Gas by 3.6% in the first quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 23,956 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,023,000 after acquiring an additional 843 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Northwest Natural Gas by 24.6% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,689 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $72,000 after acquiring an additional 334 shares during the period. Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Northwest Natural Gas by 238.2% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 376,256 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $14,885,000 after acquiring an additional 265,013 shares during the period. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new stake in Northwest Natural Gas in the first quarter valued at approximately $250,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on NWN shares. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Northwest Natural Gas from $45.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 13th. Zacks Research raised Northwest Natural Gas to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $48.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director David Hugo Anderson sold 7,574 shares of Northwest Natural Gas stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.43, for a total transaction of $306,216.82. Following the sale, the director directly owned 79,717 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,222,958.31. This trade represents a 8.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders sold 22,574 shares of company stock worth $918,517 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Northwest Natural Gas Stock Up 0.1%

NWN stock opened at $42.25 on Friday. Northwest Natural Gas Company has a twelve month low of $38.03 and a twelve month high of $44.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.43. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $41.10 and its 200-day moving average is $41.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.70 billion, a PE ratio of 16.70 and a beta of 0.59.

Northwest Natural Gas (NYSE:NWN) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.01 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.07) by $0.08. Northwest Natural Gas had a return on equity of 8.60% and a net margin of 8.34%.The company had revenue of $236.19 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $252.70 million. Northwest Natural Gas has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.750-2.950 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Northwest Natural Gas Company will post 2.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Northwest Natural Gas Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 31st were issued a dividend of $0.49 per share. This represents a $1.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.6%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 31st. Northwest Natural Gas’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 77.47%.

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.