Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) Stock Rating Lowered by Zacks Research

Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) was downgraded by equities researchers at Zacks Research from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings cut Natural Gas Services Group from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target 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. Finally, Raymond James Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Natural Gas Services Group from $53.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Natural Gas Services Group has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $50.50.

Natural Gas Services Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:NGS opened at $37.74 on Thursday. Natural Gas Services Group has a one year low of $24.13 and a one year high of $44.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $486.85 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.44 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $39.62 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 2.01.

Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 10th. The oil and gas company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $51.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $50.24 million. Natural Gas Services Group had a return on equity of 8.10% and a net margin of 10.81%. On average, analysts predict that Natural Gas Services Group will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Natural Gas Services Group

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Natural Gas Services Group during the second quarter worth $41,482,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Natural Gas Services Group by 1.2% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 611,653 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $17,120,000 after acquiring an additional 7,345 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of Natural Gas Services Group by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 509,714 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $13,156,000 after purchasing an additional 2,424 shares in the last quarter. Weber Capital Management LLC ADV purchased a new stake in shares of Natural Gas Services Group during the 4th quarter worth $16,777,000. Finally, Cannell Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Natural Gas Services Group by 279.3% during the 2nd quarter. Cannell Capital LLC now owns 331,616 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $8,559,000 after purchasing an additional 244,193 shares during the period. 65.62% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Natural Gas Services Group

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.