David Weber Sells 1,700 Shares of Northwest Natural Gas (NYSE:NWN) Stock

Northwest Natural Gas Company (NYSE:NWN) VP David Weber sold 1,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.57, for a total value of $89,369.00. Following the transaction, the vice president owned 149 shares in the company, valued at $7,832.93. This trade represents a 91.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Northwest Natural Gas Stock Performance

Northwest Natural Gas stock traded up $0.22 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $52.47. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 448,722 shares, compared to its average volume of 399,054. The company has a current ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54. Northwest Natural Gas Company has a twelve month low of $38.94 and a twelve month high of $53.66. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $49.77 and a 200-day moving average price of $47.29. The firm has a market cap of $2.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.88 and a beta of 0.55.

Northwest Natural Gas (NYSE:NWN) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $1.39 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.36 by $0.03. Northwest Natural Gas had a net margin of 8.79% and a return on equity of 8.24%. The company had revenue of $394.16 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $419.36 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.41 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Northwest Natural Gas has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.950-3.150 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Northwest Natural Gas Company will post 2.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Northwest Natural Gas Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 30th were issued a $1.97 dividend. This is an increase from Northwest Natural Gas’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.49. This represents a $7.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 15.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 30th. Northwest Natural Gas’s dividend payout ratio is 70.86%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on NWN. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Northwest Natural Gas from $52.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Weiss Ratings raised Northwest Natural Gas from a “hold (c)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Finally, BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Northwest Natural Gas in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Northwest Natural Gas presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $53.33.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NWN. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Northwest Natural Gas by 6.7% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,083,304 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $82,749,000 after purchasing an additional 131,019 shares during the period. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. lifted its holdings in Northwest Natural Gas by 14.9% in the third quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,403,975 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $63,081,000 after purchasing an additional 181,635 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Northwest Natural Gas by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 989,578 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $46,261,000 after buying an additional 16,297 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Northwest Natural Gas by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 860,956 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $38,683,000 after buying an additional 3,512 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Northwest Natural Gas by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 724,843 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $33,879,000 after buying an additional 2,187 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.13% of the company’s stock.

About Northwest Natural Gas

Northwest Natural Gas (NYSE: NWN), commonly known as NW Natural, is a publicly traded energy utility primarily engaged in the distribution of natural gas to residential, commercial and industrial customers. Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, the company operates an extensive pipeline network spanning thousands of miles across Oregon and southwest Washington. Its core business activities include gas procurement, system operation and maintenance, safety inspections and customer service support.

Dating back to the mid-19th century, Northwest Natural traces its origins to the Portland Gas Light Company, which first illuminated Portland streets with manufactured gas in 1859.