Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC Trims Stock Position in Southwest Gas Corporation $SWX

Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC trimmed its stake in Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE:SWX) by 4.2% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,857 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 170 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC’s holdings in Southwest Gas were worth $290,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. CWM LLC grew its holdings in shares of Southwest Gas by 173.5% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 6,963 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $518,000 after purchasing an additional 4,417 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Southwest Gas by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 10,673 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $794,000 after buying an additional 188 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Southwest Gas by 92.1% during the 2nd quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 9,342 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $695,000 after buying an additional 4,479 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its position in Southwest Gas by 8.0% in the 2nd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,494 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $781,000 after purchasing an additional 779 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Maryland State Retirement & Pension System raised its position in Southwest Gas by 6.5% in the 2nd quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 54,438 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,050,000 after purchasing an additional 3,329 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on SWX. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of Southwest Gas from $82.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Southwest Gas in a research note on Friday. Bank of America raised shares of Southwest Gas from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $76.00 to $84.00 in a research note on Friday, August 29th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Southwest Gas from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $82.33.

Southwest Gas Stock Up 1.3%

SWX stock opened at $82.05 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $5.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.61, a PEG ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.55. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $78.52 and a 200-day simple moving average of $75.68. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07. Southwest Gas Corporation has a twelve month low of $64.69 and a twelve month high of $82.08.

Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.17 billion. Southwest Gas had a net margin of 4.06% and a return on equity of 6.98%. The firm’s revenue was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.25 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Southwest Gas Corporation will post 3.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Gas Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 17th will be issued a $0.62 dividend. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 17th. Southwest Gas’s payout ratio is currently 92.54%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Southwest Gas news, major shareholder Carl C. Icahn sold 1,500,000 shares of Southwest Gas stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.91, for a total value of $116,865,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 6,032,604 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $470,000,177.64. The trade was a 19.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.39% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Southwest Gas Company Profile

Southwest Gas Holdings, Inc, through its subsidiaries, distributes and transports natural gas in Arizona, Nevada, and California. The company operates through Natural Gas Distribution, Utility Infrastructure Services, and Pipeline and Storage segments. It also provides trenching, installation, and replacement of underground pipes, as well as maintenance services for energy distribution systems.