Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) Trading Up 5.7% – Here’s Why

Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:NGS) shares were up 5.7% on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $40.70 and last traded at $40.9830. Approximately 53,705 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 57% from the average session volume of 124,554 shares. The stock had previously closed at $38.76.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Natural Gas Services Group from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Natural Gas Services Group in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Raymond James Financial raised their price target on Natural Gas Services Group from $53.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded 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 issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Natural Gas Services Group presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $50.50.

Natural Gas Services Group Trading Down 0.2%

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 firm has a market capitalization of $503.57 million, a PE ratio of 23.24 and a beta of 0.40. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $41.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.32.

Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 11th. The oil and gas company reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $48.47 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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, sell-side analysts predict 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.5%. This is a positive change from Natural Gas Services Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 20th. Natural Gas Services Group’s payout ratio is presently 34.88%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Natural Gas Services Group

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of NGS. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT purchased a new stake in shares of Natural Gas Services Group in the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. State of Alaska Department of Revenue purchased a new position in shares of Natural Gas Services Group during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of Natural Gas Services Group during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $106,000. Kemnay Advisory Services Inc. bought a new position in shares of Natural Gas Services Group during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $114,000. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised its holdings in shares of Natural Gas Services Group by 20.1% in the fourth quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 4,602 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $154,000 after buying an additional 771 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.