Northwest Natural (NYSE:NWN) Releases FY 2024 Earnings Guidance

Northwest Natural (NYSE:NWN) updated its FY 2024 earnings guidance on Friday. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of 2.200-2.400 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of 2.290. The company issued revenue guidance of -. Northwest Natural also updated its Q3 guidance to ($0.86)-($0.74) EPS.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on NWN. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Northwest Natural from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 7th. StockNews.com cut shares of Northwest Natural from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $41.40.

Northwest Natural Price Performance

Shares of NYSE NWN traded down $1.44 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $38.92. The stock had a trading volume of 423,438 shares, compared to its average volume of 234,778. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $37.11 and a 200-day moving average of $37.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 1.15. The company has a market capitalization of $1.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.07 and a beta of 0.57. Northwest Natural has a 12-month low of $34.82 and a 12-month high of $42.92.

Northwest Natural (NYSE:NWN) last posted its earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The utilities provider reported ($0.07) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.12) by $0.05. The company had revenue of $211.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $231.99 million. Northwest Natural had a net margin of 7.36% and a return on equity of 6.76%. Northwest Natural’s quarterly revenue was down 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.03 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Northwest Natural will post 2.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Northwest Natural Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.488 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 31st. This represents a $1.95 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.02%. Northwest Natural’s payout ratio is 85.53%.

About Northwest Natural

Northwest Natural Holding Company, through its subsidiary, Northwest Natural Gas Company, provides regulated natural gas distribution services to residential, commercial, and industrial customers in the United States. The company operates a mist gas storage facility contracted to other utilities, third-party marketers, and electric generators; offers natural gas asset management services; and operates an appliance retail center.