Renaissance Technologies LLC Trims Position in Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. $NGS

Renaissance Technologies LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:NGS) by 7.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 238,042 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after selling 18,400 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC owned approximately 1.89% of Natural Gas Services Group worth $8,984,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT purchased a new position in shares of Natural Gas Services Group during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. State of Alaska Department of Revenue acquired a new position in Natural Gas Services Group during the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in Natural Gas Services Group in the fourth quarter valued at $106,000. Kemnay Advisory Services Inc. purchased a new stake in Natural Gas Services Group in the fourth quarter valued at $114,000. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada grew its position in Natural Gas Services Group by 20.1% during the 4th quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 4,602 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $154,000 after purchasing an additional 771 shares during the period. 65.62% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Raymond James Financial upped their target price on Natural Gas Services Group from $53.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Natural Gas Services Group from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Zacks Research raised shares of Natural Gas Services Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Natural Gas Services Group in a report on Monday, June 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and three have issued a Buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $50.50.

Natural Gas Services Group Price Performance

NYSE:NGS opened at $36.71 on Monday. Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. has a 52 week low of $22.72 and a 52 week high of $44.60. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 2.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $462.52 million, a PE ratio of 21.34 and a beta of 0.42. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $40.42 and its 200-day moving average price is $38.81.

Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 11th. The oil and gas company reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.08. The firm 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%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. will post 2.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Natural Gas Services Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th were given a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.6%. This is a boost from Natural Gas Services Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 20th. Natural Gas Services Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 34.88%.

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.