North Star Investment Management Corp. Makes New Investment in Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. $NGS

North Star Investment Management Corp. acquired a new stake in Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:NGS) during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 17,000 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock, valued at approximately $642,000. North Star Investment Management Corp. owned about 0.14% of Natural Gas Services Group as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in NGS. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Natural Gas Services Group by 1.2% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 611,653 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $17,120,000 after purchasing an additional 7,345 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in Natural Gas Services Group by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 509,714 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $13,156,000 after purchasing an additional 2,424 shares during the period. Weber Capital Management LLC ADV acquired a new position in Natural Gas Services Group during the 4th quarter valued at about $16,777,000. Royce & Associates LP boosted its stake in shares of Natural Gas Services Group by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 361,571 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $10,120,000 after purchasing an additional 8,784 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cannell Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Natural Gas Services Group by 8.3% in the 3rd quarter. Cannell Capital LLC now owns 359,021 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $10,049,000 after purchasing an additional 27,405 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 65.62% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NGS has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Natural Gas Services Group from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. Zacks Research raised shares of Natural Gas Services Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.50.

Natural Gas Services Group Trading Down 2.7%

NYSE:NGS opened at $42.78 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.70, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. has a 1-year low of $22.72 and a 1-year high of $44.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $539.04 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.87 and a beta of 0.41. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $41.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $37.92.

Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) last posted its earnings results on Monday, May 11th. The oil and gas company reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $48.47 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $47.09 million. Natural Gas Services Group had a return on equity of 7.99% and a net margin of 12.17%. On average, equities analysts expect that Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Natural Gas Services Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 20th were issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This is an increase from Natural Gas Services Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 20th. Natural Gas Services Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 34.88%.

About Natural Gas Services Group

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.