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 dated Monday, March 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.57, for a total value of $89,369.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,832.93. This trade represents a 91.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Northwest Natural Gas Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of NYSE:NWN traded up $0.22 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $52.47. 448,722 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 399,054. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $49.77 and its 200 day moving average price is $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 Company has a 12-month low of $38.94 and a 12-month high of $53.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a current ratio of 0.72.

Northwest Natural Gas (NYSE:NWN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $1.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $394.16 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $419.36 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.41 earnings per share. Northwest Natural Gas’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. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Northwest Natural Gas Company will post 2.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Northwest Natural Gas Increases Dividend

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

Institutional Trading of Northwest Natural Gas

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. William Blair Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Northwest Natural Gas in the fourth quarter worth about $26,885,000. M&T Bank Corp raised its stake in Northwest Natural Gas by 6,616.5% during the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 455,579 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $21,294,000 after buying an additional 448,796 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Northwest Natural Gas by 74.2% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 587,016 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $27,437,000 after buying an additional 250,025 shares during the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in Northwest Natural Gas by 577.6% during the 2nd quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 266,698 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $10,593,000 after buying an additional 227,336 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC grew its position in shares of Northwest Natural Gas by 3,319.6% in the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 211,536 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,887,000 after acquiring an additional 205,350 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

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.