Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) Shares Gap Down – Here’s What Happened

Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:NGS)’s stock price gapped down prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $42.82, but opened at $41.05. Natural Gas Services Group shares last traded at $40.90, with a volume of 1,926 shares traded.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on NGS. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of 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 shares of Natural Gas Services Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Natural Gas Services Group presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.50.

Natural Gas Services Group Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $515.34 million, a P/E ratio of 23.78 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $39.70 and a 200-day simple moving average of $36.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 2.70 and a quick ratio of 1.77.

Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 11th. The oil and gas company reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $48.47 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $47.09 million. Natural Gas Services Group had a return on equity of 7.99% and a net margin of 12.17%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Natural Gas Services Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. This is an increase from Natural Gas Services Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 20th. Natural Gas Services Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 34.88%.

Insider Activity

In other Natural Gas Services Group news, Director Stephen Charles Taylor sold 70,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.58, for a total value of $2,630,600.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 205,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,720,134.56. This represents a 25.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 3.12% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT acquired a new position in shares of Natural Gas Services Group in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. State of Alaska Department of Revenue acquired a new position in shares of Natural Gas Services Group in the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its holdings in shares of Natural Gas Services Group by 106.7% in the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 3,100 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $87,000 after buying an additional 1,600 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of Natural Gas Services Group in the fourth quarter worth about $106,000. Finally, Kemnay Advisory Services Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Natural Gas Services Group in the fourth quarter worth about $114,000. 65.62% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.