Principal Financial Group Inc. Decreases Stake in Southwest Gas Corporation $SWX

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE:SWX) by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,119,634 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 59,623 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Southwest Gas were worth $87,712,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in SWX. Massachusetts Wealth Management raised its position in Southwest Gas by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Wealth Management now owns 8,080 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $633,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Southwest Gas by 21.3% in the second quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 939 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $70,000 after acquiring an additional 165 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Southwest Gas by 0.4% in the second quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 44,098 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,280,000 after acquiring an additional 168 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Southwest Gas by 1.8% during the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 10,673 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $794,000 after purchasing an additional 188 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Southwest Gas by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 23,875 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,870,000 after buying an additional 219 shares during the period. 92.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently issued reports on SWX. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Southwest Gas in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Southwest Gas from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $82.00 to $99.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Mizuho started coverage on Southwest Gas in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $91.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Zacks Research raised Southwest Gas from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Southwest Gas currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $87.40.

Southwest Gas Stock Performance

Shares of Southwest Gas stock opened at $82.00 on Tuesday. Southwest Gas Corporation has a one year low of $64.69 and a one year high of $86.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a current ratio of 1.55. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $81.71 and its 200 day moving average price is $79.93. The company has a market cap of $5.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.77, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.65.

Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.06 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.09 by ($0.03). Southwest Gas had a net margin of 11.59% and a return on equity of 6.78%. The firm had revenue of $316.91 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.08 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.09 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Southwest Gas Corporation will post 3.03 EPS for the current year.

Southwest Gas Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.62 per share. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 17th. Southwest Gas’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.63%.

Southwest Gas Company Profile

Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE: SWX) is a publicly traded natural gas utility that provides regulated gas distribution services to residential, commercial, industrial and electric generation customers. The company’s core activities include the transportation, distribution and sale of natural gas through an extensive network of pipelines, service lines and metering facilities. Southwest Gas also offers related services such as system maintenance, pipeline safety inspections, emergency response and line extensions to support customer growth and ensure reliable gas delivery.

Founded in 1931 in southern Nevada, Southwest Gas has grown through strategic acquisitions and organic expansion to become one of the nation’s larger natural gas utilities by customer count.