Ieq Capital LLC Makes New Investment in Northwest Natural Gas Company $NWN

Ieq Capital LLC bought a new position in Northwest Natural Gas Company (NYSE:NWN) during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 6,747 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $288,000.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Abound Wealth Management bought a new position in Northwest Natural Gas in the 1st quarter worth about $34,000. MCF Advisors LLC bought a new position in Northwest Natural Gas in the 1st quarter worth about $38,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Northwest Natural Gas by 24.6% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,689 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $72,000 after acquiring an additional 334 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its stake in Northwest Natural Gas by 32.5% in the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 2,830 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $112,000 after acquiring an additional 694 shares in the last quarter. Finally, OLD Republic International Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Northwest Natural Gas in the 1st quarter worth approximately $201,000. 75.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director David Hugo Anderson sold 7,574 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.43, for a total transaction of $306,216.82. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 79,717 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,222,958.31. This represents a 8.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders have sold a total of 22,574 shares of company stock worth $918,517 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.93% of the company’s stock.

Northwest Natural Gas Price Performance

Shares of NWN opened at $41.79 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $40.99 and a 200-day moving average price of $41.32. Northwest Natural Gas Company has a fifty-two week low of $38.03 and a fifty-two week high of $44.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.68 billion, a PE ratio of 16.52 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a current ratio of 0.68.

Northwest Natural Gas (NYSE:NWN) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.01 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.07) by $0.08. Northwest Natural Gas had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 8.60%. The company had revenue of $236.19 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $252.70 million. Northwest Natural Gas has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.750-2.950 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Northwest Natural Gas Company will post 2.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Northwest Natural Gas Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 31st were given a dividend of $0.49 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 31st. This represents a $1.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.7%. Northwest Natural Gas’s dividend payout ratio is presently 77.47%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on NWN. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Northwest Natural Gas from $45.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 13th. Zacks Research raised shares of Northwest Natural Gas to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Northwest Natural Gas presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $48.00.

Northwest Natural Gas Company Profile

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.