Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) Price Target Raised to $44.00

Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) had its price objective upped by Stifel Nicolaus from $39.00 to $44.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the oil and gas company’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on NGS. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Natural Gas Services Group in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Zacks Research cut Natural Gas Services Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 12th. Finally, Raymond James Financial downgraded Natural Gas Services Group from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $34.00 to $42.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Natural Gas Services Group presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $43.00.

Natural Gas Services Group Stock Down 1.2%

Shares of NYSE NGS opened at $39.01 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $491.15 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.85 and a beta of 0.34. The company has a current ratio of 2.33, a quick ratio of 1.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84. Natural Gas Services Group has a 12 month low of $16.73 and a 12 month high of $40.73. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $36.36 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $32.07.

Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 16th. The oil and gas company reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $46.15 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $43.81 million. Natural Gas Services Group had a net margin of 11.56% and a return on equity of 7.43%. As a group, analysts forecast that Natural Gas Services Group will post 1.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Natural Gas Services Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 18th were given a dividend of $0.11 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 18th. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. Natural Gas Services Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 28.03%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Natural Gas Services Group news, Director Stephen Charles Taylor sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.23, for a total value of $1,116,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 175,432 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,531,333.36. This represents a 14.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 7.25% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Natural Gas Services Group

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT bought a new position in Natural Gas Services Group during the 4th quarter worth $27,000. State of Alaska Department of Revenue bought a new stake in shares of Natural Gas Services Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its stake in shares of Natural Gas Services Group by 105.5% in the second quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,424 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 731 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund increased its stake in shares of Natural Gas Services Group by 106.7% in the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 3,100 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $87,000 after buying an additional 1,600 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of Natural Gas Services Group during the fourth quarter worth about $106,000. Institutional investors own 65.62% of the company’s stock.

About Natural Gas Services Group

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.