Brokerages Set Navigator Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:NVGS) Price Target at $23.33

Navigator Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:NVGS) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Buy” from the six research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $23.3333.

Several brokerages have issued reports on NVGS. Zacks Research raised Navigator from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Citigroup lifted their target price on Navigator from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded Navigator from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 20th.

Navigator Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of Navigator stock opened at $21.64 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $21.56 and a 200-day simple moving average of $20.39. Navigator has a 12-month low of $14.08 and a 12-month high of $24.36. The company has a current ratio of 1.16, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The stock has a market cap of $1.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.28, a PEG ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.46.

Navigator (NYSE:NVGS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The shipping company reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.16. Navigator had a net margin of 18.84% and a return on equity of 7.01%. The firm had revenue of $140.62 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $139.35 million. On average, equities analysts forecast that Navigator will post 2.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Navigator Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th were given a dividend of $0.07 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 20th. This represents a $0.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. Navigator’s payout ratio is 17.18%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Navigator news, COO Michael Schroder sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.63, for a total value of $590,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 5,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $118,150. The trade was a 83.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Oeyvind Lindeman sold 6,259 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.70, for a total value of $135,820.30. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing.

Institutional Trading of Navigator

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Millennium Management LLC grew its position in Navigator by 16.4% during the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 542,756 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $7,224,000 after purchasing an additional 76,287 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Navigator by 18.0% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 50,885 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $677,000 after buying an additional 7,777 shares during the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Navigator by 674.7% during the first quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 85,843 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $1,143,000 after buying an additional 74,762 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Navigator during the second quarter worth about $5,677,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Navigator by 118.1% during the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 79,438 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $1,124,000 after buying an additional 43,008 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 18.95% of the company’s stock.

About Navigator

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).