Northwest Natural Gas Company $NWN Shares Bought by Natixis Advisors LLC

Natixis Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Northwest Natural Gas Company (NYSE:NWN) by 22.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 267,886 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 49,065 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC owned about 0.65% of Northwest Natural Gas worth $12,036,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Northwest Natural Gas by 6.7% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,083,304 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $82,749,000 after purchasing an additional 131,019 shares in the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Northwest Natural Gas by 14.9% during the third quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,403,975 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $63,081,000 after purchasing an additional 181,635 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Northwest Natural Gas by 0.6% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 956,771 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $38,008,000 after buying an additional 5,251 shares during the period. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. boosted its position in shares of Northwest Natural Gas by 20.7% in the second quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 940,470 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $37,355,000 after buying an additional 161,000 shares during the period. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Northwest Natural Gas by 4.0% in the second quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 359,085 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $14,263,000 after buying an additional 13,730 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on NWN shares. BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Northwest Natural Gas in a report on Friday, January 30th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Northwest Natural Gas from $52.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Northwest Natural Gas from a “hold (c)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $53.33.

Northwest Natural Gas Price Performance

Shares of NYSE NWN opened at $51.89 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54. Northwest Natural Gas Company has a fifty-two week low of $38.94 and a fifty-two week high of $53.66. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $48.70 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $46.56. The firm has a market cap of $2.16 billion, a PE ratio of 18.67 and a beta of 0.55.

Northwest Natural Gas (NYSE:NWN) last announced its earnings results on Friday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $1.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.36 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $394.16 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $419.36 million. Northwest Natural Gas had a return on equity of 8.24% and a net margin of 8.79%.Northwest Natural Gas’s quarterly revenue was up 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.41 EPS. Northwest Natural Gas has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.950-3.150 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Northwest Natural Gas Company will post 2.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Northwest Natural Gas Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 30th were paid a dividend of $1.97 per share. This is a positive change from Northwest Natural Gas’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.49. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 30th. This represents a $7.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 15.2%. Northwest Natural Gas’s payout ratio is currently 70.86%.

About Northwest Natural Gas

Northwest Natural Gas (NYSE: NWN), commonly known as NW Natural, is a publicly traded energy utility primarily engaged in the distribution of natural gas to residential, commercial and industrial customers. Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, the company operates an extensive pipeline network spanning thousands of miles across Oregon and southwest Washington. Its core business activities include gas procurement, system operation and maintenance, safety inspections and customer service support.

Dating back to the mid-19th century, Northwest Natural traces its origins to the Portland Gas Light Company, which first illuminated Portland streets with manufactured gas in 1859.