Principal Financial Group Inc. Invests $597,000 in Navigator Holdings Ltd. $NVGS

Principal Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Navigator Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:NVGS) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 38,515 shares of the shipping company’s stock, valued at approximately $597,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. California State Teachers Retirement System bought a new stake in Navigator in the second quarter valued at $29,000. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Navigator in the 2nd quarter worth about $42,000. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. bought a new stake in Navigator in the 2nd quarter valued at about $47,000. CWM LLC acquired a new position in Navigator during the 3rd quarter valued at about $52,000. Finally, Osaic Holdings Inc. grew its position in Navigator by 21,406.3% in the 2nd quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 3,441 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 3,425 shares during the last quarter. 18.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on NVGS shares. Wall Street Zen downgraded Navigator from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, February 8th. Pareto Securities started coverage on Navigator in a research note on Tuesday, December 9th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Navigator in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $19.00 price objective on shares of Navigator in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of Navigator from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.50.

Navigator Stock Up 1.1%

NVGS stock opened at $19.78 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 1.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.40. Navigator Holdings Ltd. has a 52-week low of $10.55 and a 52-week high of $19.87. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $18.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $16.97.

Navigator Profile

Navigator Holdings Ltd. is a global shipping company specializing in the seaborne transportation of liquefied gases. The company’s fleet is purpose-built to carry a range of petrochemical gases, including liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), ethylene, propylene and ammonia. Navigator’s vessels are designed to meet the stringent safety and environmental standards required for handling pressurized and refrigerated gases, offering flexible capacity to customers across the energy and chemical sectors.

Navigator operates one of the largest and most modern fleets of gas carriers in the industry, with vessels ranging from fully pressurized gas carriers to specialized very large ethane carriers (VLECs).