Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) Cut to “Hold” at Zacks Research

Zacks Research lowered shares of Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Monday morning,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on the company. Raymond James Financial cut Natural Gas Services Group from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $34.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Natural Gas Services Group from $33.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Natural Gas Services Group in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $40.50.

Natural Gas Services Group Stock Down 0.6%

Shares of Natural Gas Services Group stock opened at $33.97 on Monday. Natural Gas Services Group has a twelve month low of $16.73 and a twelve month high of $35.12. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The company’s 50 day moving average is $32.23 and its 200 day moving average is $28.23. The company has a market cap of $426.94 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.95 and a beta of 0.42.

Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) last posted its earnings results on Monday, November 10th. The oil and gas company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $43.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $43.25 million. Natural Gas Services Group had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 7.37%. Research analysts anticipate that Natural Gas Services Group will post 1.42 EPS for the current year.

Natural Gas Services Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 3rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 20th were given a dividend of $0.11 per share. This represents a $0.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 20th. This is an increase from Natural Gas Services Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. Natural Gas Services Group’s payout ratio is presently 29.73%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Jean K. Holley bought 2,190 shares of Natural Gas Services Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 8th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $32.04 per share, with a total value of $70,167.60. Following the acquisition, the director owned 14,390 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $461,055.60. The trade was a 17.95% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Stephen Charles Taylor sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.12, for a total transaction of $642,400.00. Following the sale, the director owned 295,432 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,489,275.84. The trade was a 6.34% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 51,252 shares of company stock valued at $1,604,077. 5.08% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its stake in Natural Gas Services Group by 831.2% in the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 12,776 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $281,000 after buying an additional 11,404 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its stake in shares of Natural Gas Services Group by 5.5% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 98,479 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $2,164,000 after acquiring an additional 5,125 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of Natural Gas Services Group by 2.7% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 57,251 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $1,478,000 after purchasing an additional 1,481 shares in the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Natural Gas Services Group during the second quarter worth about $819,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC bought a new stake in Natural Gas Services Group during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $210,000. Institutional investors own 65.62% of the company’s stock.

Natural Gas Services Group Company Profile

Natural Gas Services Group, Inc (NYSE: NGS) is an energy infrastructure company specializing in natural gas distribution and compression services across the United States. The company operates two primary lines of business: the Distribution segment provides natural gas delivery to residential, commercial and industrial customers, while the Compression Services segment rents, sells and services a diversified fleet of compression equipment for midstream and industrial applications.

In its Distribution segment, Natural Gas Services Group engineers, constructs and maintains local pipeline networks, meters and related apparatus to ensure safe and reliable natural gas supply to municipal utilities and private customers.