Bank of Montreal Can Has $928,000 Stock Holdings in Northwest Natural Gas Company $NWN

Bank of Montreal Can boosted its position in Northwest Natural Gas Company (NYSE:NWN) by 9.3% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 23,372 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,989 shares during the quarter. Bank of Montreal Can owned 0.06% of Northwest Natural Gas worth $928,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NWN. Versor Investments LP bought a new position in shares of Northwest Natural Gas in the 2nd quarter valued at $322,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. boosted its stake in Northwest Natural Gas by 44.3% in the second quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 1,143 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $45,000 after buying an additional 351 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in Northwest Natural Gas by 178.9% in the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,300 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $211,000 after acquiring an additional 3,400 shares during the last quarter. MQS Management LLC raised its stake in Northwest Natural Gas by 95.9% during the second quarter. MQS Management LLC now owns 12,565 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $499,000 after acquiring an additional 6,152 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC bought a new position in shares of Northwest Natural Gas in the second quarter worth about $378,000. 75.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on NWN. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Northwest Natural Gas from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Zacks Research raised shares of Northwest Natural Gas to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Northwest Natural Gas in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, BTIG Research upgraded shares of Northwest Natural Gas to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $50.67.

Insider Activity at Northwest Natural Gas

In related news, Director David Hugo Anderson sold 10,509 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.00, for a total value of $472,905.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 51,922 shares in the company, valued at $2,336,490. This represents a 16.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders sold 42,869 shares of company stock valued at $1,882,588 over the last quarter. 0.93% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Northwest Natural Gas Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of NYSE NWN opened at $48.02 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $44.91 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $42.36. The stock has a market cap of $1.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.98 and a beta of 0.57. Northwest Natural Gas Company has a 52-week low of $38.03 and a 52-week high of $48.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a current ratio of 0.68.

Northwest Natural Gas (NYSE:NWN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 4th. The utilities provider reported ($0.73) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.82) by $0.09. The company had revenue of $164.73 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $174.66 million. Northwest Natural Gas had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 8.60%. Northwest Natural Gas’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.71) earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Northwest Natural Gas Company will post 2.33 EPS for the current year.

Northwest Natural Gas Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 31st were given a dividend of $0.4925 per share. This represents a $1.97 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.1%. This is a positive change from Northwest Natural Gas’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.49. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 31st. Northwest Natural Gas’s dividend payout ratio is 78.49%.

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.