Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) Stock Passes Above 200 Day Moving Average – Time to Sell?

Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:NGS) shares passed above its two hundred day moving average during trading on Thursday . The stock has a two hundred day moving average of $36.60 and traded as high as $41.52. Natural Gas Services Group shares last traded at $41.46, with a volume of 63,324 shares traded.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Natural Gas Services Group from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. Zacks Research raised Natural Gas Services Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.50.

Natural Gas Services Group Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $522.31 million, a PE ratio of 24.10 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 2.70 and a quick ratio of 1.77. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $39.92 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $36.60.

Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 11th. The oil and gas company reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $48.47 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $47.09 million. Natural Gas Services Group had a return on equity of 7.99% and a net margin of 12.17%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. will post 2.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Natural Gas Services Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th were paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.4%. This is a boost from Natural Gas Services Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 20th. Natural Gas Services Group’s payout ratio is currently 34.88%.

Institutional Trading of Natural Gas Services Group

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT purchased a new stake in shares of Natural Gas Services Group during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. State of Alaska Department of Revenue purchased a new stake in shares of Natural Gas Services Group during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its holdings in shares of Natural Gas Services Group by 106.7% during 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 acquiring an additional 1,600 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in Natural Gas Services Group in the fourth quarter worth $106,000. Finally, Kemnay Advisory Services Inc. purchased a new stake in Natural Gas Services Group in the fourth quarter worth $114,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.62% of the company’s stock.

Natural Gas Services Group Company Profile

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.