Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) Rating Increased to Hold at Zacks Research

Zacks Research upgraded shares of Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) from a strong sell rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Separately, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Natural Gas Services Group from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.50.

Natural Gas Services Group Price Performance

NGS stock opened at $43.46 on Monday. Natural Gas Services Group has a 52-week low of $22.72 and a 52-week high of $44.12. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $39.09 and its 200-day simple moving average is $35.53. 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 $547.52 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.27 and a beta of 0.43.

Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. Natural Gas Services Group had a return on equity of 7.99% and a net margin of 12.17%.The business had revenue of $48.47 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $47.09 million. Equities research analysts expect that Natural Gas Services Group will post 2.02 EPS for the current year.

Natural Gas Services Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 20th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 20th. 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%. Natural Gas Services Group’s payout ratio is 34.88%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Stephen Charles Taylor sold 70,000 shares of Natural Gas Services Group stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.58, for a total value of $2,630,600.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 205,432 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,720,134.56. This trade represents a 25.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 3.12% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NGS. NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Natural Gas Services Group by 831.2% in the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 12,776 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $281,000 after acquiring an additional 11,404 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its holdings in 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 valued at $2,164,000 after acquiring an additional 5,125 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Natural Gas Services Group by 1.4% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 230,817 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $5,958,000 after acquiring an additional 3,221 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Natural Gas Services Group by 44.8% in the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 33,994 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $877,000 after acquiring an additional 10,525 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers boosted its holdings in Natural Gas Services Group by 52.4% in the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 16,770 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $433,000 after acquiring an additional 5,763 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.