Analysts Set Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE:SWX) Price Target at $88.40

Shares of Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE:SWX) have received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eight analysts that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, five have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $88.40.

A number of brokerages recently commented on SWX. Mizuho set a $96.00 target price on Southwest Gas in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. Citigroup raised shares of Southwest Gas from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $82.00 to $99.00 in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Southwest Gas in a research note on Monday, December 29th.

Southwest Gas Stock Up 0.0%

NYSE SWX opened at $86.72 on Friday. Southwest Gas has a twelve month low of $64.69 and a twelve month high of $90.00. The stock has a market cap of $6.27 billion, a PE ratio of 13.20, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.63. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $85.96 and a 200 day simple moving average of $82.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 1.28.

Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $1.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.40 by ($0.04). Southwest Gas had a net margin of 14.77% and a return on equity of 6.62%. The firm had revenue of $480.74 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $587.01 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.39 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 13.1% on a year-over-year basis. Southwest Gas has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.170-4.320 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Southwest Gas will post 3.03 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Southwest Gas by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,052,987 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $552,531,000 after purchasing an additional 19,403 shares during the period. Maverick Capital Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Southwest Gas by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 2,048,053 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $163,885,000 after buying an additional 94,535 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Southwest Gas by 146.9% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,773,068 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $138,902,000 after buying an additional 1,054,963 shares in the last quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. grew its position in Southwest Gas by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 1,648,496 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $131,913,000 after acquiring an additional 228,496 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Southwest Gas by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,602,100 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $128,219,000 after acquiring an additional 9,515 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.77% of the company’s stock.

About Southwest Gas

Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE: SWX) is a publicly traded natural gas utility that provides regulated gas distribution services to residential, commercial, industrial and electric generation customers. The company’s core activities include the transportation, distribution and sale of natural gas through an extensive network of pipelines, service lines and metering facilities. Southwest Gas also offers related services such as system maintenance, pipeline safety inspections, emergency response and line extensions to support customer growth and ensure reliable gas delivery.

Founded in 1931 in southern Nevada, Southwest Gas has grown through strategic acquisitions and organic expansion to become one of the nation’s larger natural gas utilities by customer count.