Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Takes $818,000 Position in Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. $NGS

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new stake in Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:NGS) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 21,662 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock, valued at approximately $818,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. owned approximately 0.17% of Natural Gas Services Group as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Osaic Holdings Inc. boosted its position in Natural Gas Services Group by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 6,818 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $229,000 after buying an additional 642 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada increased its position in shares of Natural Gas Services Group by 20.1% during the fourth quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 4,602 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $154,000 after acquiring an additional 771 shares during the period. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT purchased a new stake in shares of Natural Gas Services Group during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Deutsche Bank AG raised its stake in shares of Natural Gas Services Group by 11.4% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 8,165 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $275,000 after acquiring an additional 836 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State of Alaska Department of Revenue acquired a new stake in shares of Natural Gas Services Group in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. 65.62% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NGS has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Natural Gas Services Group from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Zacks Research raised Natural Gas Services Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Natural Gas Services Group in a research note on Monday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.50.

Natural Gas Services Group Stock Performance

Shares of Natural Gas Services Group stock opened at $39.37 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $496.11 million, a P/E ratio of 22.89 and a beta of 0.40. Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. has a 52 week low of $22.72 and a 52 week high of $44.60. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 2.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $41.41 and its two-hundred day moving average is $38.08.

Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 11th. The oil and gas company reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $48.47 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $47.09 million. Natural Gas Services Group had a net margin of 12.17% and a return on equity of 7.99%. 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 company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 20th were given a $0.15 dividend. 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. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.5%. Natural Gas Services Group’s payout ratio is currently 34.88%.

Natural Gas Services Group 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.