Phocas Financial Corp. Buys New Holdings in Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. $NGS

Phocas Financial Corp. purchased a new position in shares of Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:NGS) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 43,688 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,470,000. Phocas Financial Corp. owned about 0.35% of Natural Gas Services Group at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC lifted its position in Natural Gas Services Group by 105.5% in the second quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,424 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 731 shares during the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund grew its holdings in shares of Natural Gas Services Group by 106.7% in the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 3,100 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $87,000 after purchasing an additional 1,600 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of Natural Gas Services Group in the fourth quarter worth $106,000. Arthur M. Cohen & Associates LLC bought a new stake in Natural Gas Services Group during the 3rd quarter valued at $218,000. Finally, Man Group plc bought a new stake in Natural Gas Services Group during the 2nd quarter valued at $231,000. 65.62% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Natural Gas Services Group

In related news, Director Stephen Charles Taylor sold 70,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.58, for a total value of $2,630,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 205,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,720,134.56. This represents a 25.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 5.08% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Natural Gas Services Group in a report on Monday, December 29th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Natural Gas Services Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 24th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Natural Gas Services Group from $39.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 20th. Finally, Raymond James Financial cut Natural Gas Services Group from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $34.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $43.00.

Natural Gas Services Group Price Performance

Shares of Natural Gas Services Group stock opened at $38.10 on Monday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $37.27 and a 200 day moving average of $32.92. Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. has a 52 week low of $16.73 and a 52 week high of $40.73. The company has a market cap of $479.69 million, a PE ratio of 24.27 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a quick ratio of 1.49, a current ratio of 2.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84.

Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 16th. The oil and gas company reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $46.15 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $43.81 million. Natural Gas Services Group had a net margin of 11.56% and a return on equity of 7.43%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. will post 1.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Natural Gas Services Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 18th were given a dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 18th. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Natural Gas Services Group’s payout ratio is currently 28.03%.

Natural Gas Services Group 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.