Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Raises Position in Navigator Holdings Ltd. $NVGS

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Navigator Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:NVGS) by 18.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 50,885 shares of the shipping company’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,777 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. owned approximately 0.07% of Navigator worth $677,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in NVGS. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Navigator by 13.1% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 73,478 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $1,128,000 after purchasing an additional 8,499 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in shares of Navigator by 31.0% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 80,719 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $1,239,000 after purchasing an additional 19,121 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Navigator by 581.3% during the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 58,781 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $782,000 after purchasing an additional 50,153 shares during the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Navigator by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 528,391 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $7,033,000 after purchasing an additional 6,550 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Harvey Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Navigator by 64.4% during the 1st quarter. Harvey Capital Management Inc. now owns 268,100 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $3,568,000 after purchasing an additional 105,000 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 18.95% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $19.00 price objective on shares of Navigator in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $21.50.

Navigator Price Performance

Shares of NYSE NVGS opened at $16.38 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $16.15 and its 200 day moving average price is $14.55. The firm has a market cap of $1.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.90 and a beta of 0.67. Navigator Holdings Ltd. has a 52 week low of $10.55 and a 52 week high of $17.52. The company has a quick ratio of 1.53, a current ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70.

Navigator (NYSE:NVGS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 12th. The shipping company reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.36 by ($0.22). The company had revenue of $129.64 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $126.73 million. Navigator had a return on equity of 6.56% and a net margin of 15.57%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Navigator Holdings Ltd. will post 1.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Navigator Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 28th were given a dividend of $0.05 per share. This represents a $0.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 28th. Navigator’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 15.75%.

About Navigator

Navigator Holdings Ltd. engages in owning and operating a fleet of liquefied gas carriers worldwide. It provides international and regional seaborne transportation services of petrochemical gases, liquefied petroleum gases, and ammonia for energy companies, industrial users, and commodity traders. The company also offers ship shore infrastructure and consultancy services.