Sanctuary Advisors LLC Invests $660,000 in Navigator Holdings Ltd. $NVGS

Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Navigator Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:NVGS) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 34,145 shares of the shipping company’s stock, valued at approximately $660,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC owned about 0.05% of Navigator as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of NVGS. Geode Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Navigator in the 2nd quarter valued at $5,677,000. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Navigator in the 3rd quarter worth $6,091,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Navigator in the second quarter valued at about $4,773,000. First Manhattan CO. LLC. boosted its holdings in shares of Navigator by 27.8% in the fourth quarter. First Manhattan CO. LLC. now owns 1,430,009 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $24,768,000 after acquiring an additional 311,259 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management purchased a new stake in shares of Navigator in the fourth quarter valued at about $3,108,000. 18.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on NVGS. Citigroup upped their price objective on Navigator from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Zacks Research raised Navigator from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Navigator from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and five have assigned a Buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $23.33.

Navigator Trading Up 0.0%

NYSE:NVGS opened at $21.72 on Tuesday. Navigator Holdings Ltd. has a 52-week low of $14.08 and a 52-week high of $24.36. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $21.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $20.42. The company has a market capitalization of $1.34 billion, a PE ratio of 13.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.46.

Navigator (NYSE:NVGS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The shipping company reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.16. Navigator had a net margin of 18.84% and a return on equity of 7.01%. The firm had revenue of $140.62 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $139.35 million. On average, equities research analysts expect that Navigator Holdings Ltd. will post 2.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Navigator Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th were given a $0.07 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 20th. This represents a $0.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Navigator’s dividend payout ratio is currently 17.18%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Oeyvind Lindeman sold 6,259 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.70, for a total transaction of $135,820.30. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Michael Schroder sold 25,000 shares of Navigator stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.63, for a total value of $590,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 5,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $118,150. This represents a 83.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing.

Navigator Company Profile

Navigator Holdings Ltd. is a global shipping company specializing in the seaborne transportation of liquefied gases. The company’s fleet is purpose-built to carry a range of petrochemical gases, including liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), ethylene, propylene and ammonia. Navigator’s vessels are designed to meet the stringent safety and environmental standards required for handling pressurized and refrigerated gases, offering flexible capacity to customers across the energy and chemical sectors.

Navigator operates one of the largest and most modern fleets of gas carriers in the industry, with vessels ranging from fully pressurized gas carriers to specialized very large ethane carriers (VLECs).