Northwest Natural Gas Company $NWN Holdings Lifted by Nisa Investment Advisors LLC

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Northwest Natural Gas Company (NYSE:NWN) by 178.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,300 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,400 shares during the quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Northwest Natural Gas were worth $211,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of NWN. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Northwest Natural Gas by 24.6% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,689 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $72,000 after buying an additional 334 shares in the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas bought a new position in Northwest Natural Gas during the first quarter valued at about $250,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Northwest Natural Gas by 2.7% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 199,834 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $8,537,000 after buying an additional 5,317 shares in the last quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd bought a new position in Northwest Natural Gas during the first quarter valued at about $204,000. Finally, OLD Republic International Corp bought a new position in Northwest Natural Gas during the first quarter valued at about $201,000. Institutional investors own 75.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on NWN shares. Zacks Research raised Northwest Natural Gas to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. BTIG Research raised Northwest Natural Gas to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Northwest Natural Gas in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.67.

Northwest Natural Gas Trading Up 1.6%

Shares of NYSE NWN opened at $46.27 on Tuesday. Northwest Natural Gas Company has a 12 month low of $38.03 and a 12 month high of $47.79. The company has a market cap of $1.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.29 and a beta of 0.57. 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 business has a fifty day simple moving average of $43.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $42.12.

Northwest Natural Gas (NYSE:NWN) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.01 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $236.19 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $252.70 million. Sell-side analysts predict that Northwest Natural Gas Company will post 2.33 EPS for the current year.

Northwest Natural Gas Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.4925 per share. This is a positive change from Northwest Natural Gas’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.49. This represents a $1.97 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 31st. Northwest Natural Gas’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 77.87%.

Insider Transactions at Northwest Natural Gas

In related news, Director David Hugo Anderson sold 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.39, for a total value of $347,925.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 44,422 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,060,736.58. This represents a 14.44% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Over the last three months, insiders sold 42,869 shares of company stock valued at $1,882,588. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Northwest Natural Gas

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.