Jones Financial Companies Lllp Buys 7,111 Shares of Southwest Gas Corporation $SWX

Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its stake in Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE:SWX) by 21.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 40,536 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,111 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp owned about 0.06% of Southwest Gas worth $3,167,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Millennium Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Southwest Gas by 74.7% in the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 209,934 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $15,073,000 after purchasing an additional 89,761 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its stake in Southwest Gas by 14.9% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 190,852 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $13,703,000 after buying an additional 24,688 shares during the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS increased its holdings in shares of Southwest Gas by 22.9% during the second quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS now owns 32,700 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,433,000 after buying an additional 6,100 shares in the last quarter. Clear Creek Financial Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Southwest Gas by 10.2% in the second quarter. Clear Creek Financial Management LLC now owns 3,570 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $266,000 after acquiring an additional 331 shares during the last quarter. Finally, US Bancorp DE raised its stake in shares of Southwest Gas by 8.0% in the second quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,494 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $781,000 after acquiring an additional 779 shares during the last quarter. 92.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on SWX shares. Zacks Research raised Southwest Gas from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 20th. Weiss Ratings restated 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 target for the stock from $82.00 to $99.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, Mizuho assumed coverage on shares of Southwest Gas in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $91.00 price objective on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $87.40.

Southwest Gas Stock Performance

SWX stock opened at $83.14 on Friday. Southwest Gas Corporation has a twelve month low of $64.69 and a twelve month high of $86.75. The company has a quick ratio of 1.43, a current ratio of 1.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. The company has a market cap of $6.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.65. The business’s fifty day moving average is $81.74 and its 200-day moving average is $80.03.

Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.06 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.09 by ($0.03). Southwest Gas had a net margin of 11.59% and a return on equity of 6.78%. The company had revenue of $316.91 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.08 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.09 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast 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. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be issued a $0.62 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 17th. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. Southwest Gas’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.63%.

Southwest Gas 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.