Southwest Gas Corporation $SWX Shares Sold by California Public Employees Retirement System

California Public Employees Retirement System lowered its stake in Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE:SWX) by 6.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 177,961 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 12,297 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Southwest Gas were worth $15,465,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Maverick Capital Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Southwest Gas by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 2,048,053 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $163,885,000 after purchasing an additional 94,535 shares during the last quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. grew its holdings in shares of Southwest Gas by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 1,648,496 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $131,913,000 after buying an additional 228,496 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Southwest Gas by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,602,100 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $128,219,000 after buying an additional 9,515 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Southwest Gas by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,060,751 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $84,883,000 after purchasing an additional 5,882 shares during the period. Finally, Gabelli Funds LLC lifted its position in Southwest Gas by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 1,014,287 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $81,163,000 after buying an additional 4,145 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on SWX shares. UBS Group set a $100.00 price target on Southwest Gas in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Southwest Gas from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, July 12th. Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on shares of Southwest Gas in a research report on Monday, May 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $105.00 target price for the company. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Southwest Gas from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Southwest Gas from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $97.29.

Southwest Gas Price Performance

Shares of SWX stock opened at $92.98 on Friday. Southwest Gas Corporation has a 12 month low of $75.75 and a 12 month high of $94.46. The company has a market capitalization of $6.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.58. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $89.32 and a two-hundred day moving average of $87.85. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84.

Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.88 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $585.12 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $695.52 million. Southwest Gas had a return on equity of 6.95% and a net margin of 19.95%.Southwest Gas’s quarterly revenue was down 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.58 earnings per share. Southwest Gas has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.170-4.320 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Southwest Gas Corporation will post 4.27 EPS for the current year.

Southwest Gas Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 17th will be issued a $0.645 dividend. This represents a $2.58 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 17th. Southwest Gas’s payout ratio is 37.39%.

Southwest Gas Profile

Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE: SWX) is a publicly traded natural gas utility that provides regulated gas distribution services to residential, commercial, industrial and electric generation customers. The company’s core activities include the transportation, distribution and sale of natural gas through an extensive network of pipelines, service lines and metering facilities. Southwest Gas also offers related services such as system maintenance, pipeline safety inspections, emergency response and line extensions to support customer growth and ensure reliable gas delivery.

Founded in 1931 in southern Nevada, Southwest Gas has grown through strategic acquisitions and organic expansion to become one of the nation’s larger natural gas utilities by customer count.