Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) SVP Sells $204,525.00 in Stock

Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE:SWX) SVP Julie Williams sold 2,500 shares of Southwest Gas stock in a transaction on Monday, September 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.81, for a total transaction of $204,525.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 26,450 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,163,874.50. This trade represents a 8.64% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Southwest Gas Trading Up 0.2%

Southwest Gas stock opened at $81.74 on Friday. Southwest Gas Corporation has a 12 month low of $76.74 and a 12 month high of $94.46. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83. The stock has a market cap of $5.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.57. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $88.41 and its 200-day simple moving average is $89.00.

Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.45. The business had revenue of $358.15 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $416.20 million. Southwest Gas had a return on equity of 6.79% and a net margin of 31.85%.Southwest Gas’s quarterly revenue was down 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.18) earnings per share. Southwest Gas has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.170-4.320 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Southwest Gas Corporation will post 4.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Gas Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 17th were paid a dividend of $0.6450 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 17th. This represents a $2.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.2%. Southwest Gas’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.68%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Southwest Gas

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Southwest Gas in the second quarter valued at approximately $991,549,000. Maverick Capital Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Southwest Gas by 3.9% in the first quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 2,126,927 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $184,830,000 after buying an additional 78,874 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Southwest Gas by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,602,100 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $128,219,000 after buying an additional 9,515 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of Southwest Gas during the 2nd quarter worth $74,324,000. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Southwest Gas in the 4th quarter valued at $66,930,000. 92.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Mizuho set a $103.00 price target on Southwest Gas in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Scotiabank began coverage on shares of Southwest Gas in a research report on Tuesday. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $95.00 price objective on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Southwest Gas from $105.00 to $107.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Southwest Gas from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 26th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Southwest Gas from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Monday, September 14th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $101.83.

About Southwest Gas

Southwest Gas Holdings, Inc (NYSE: SWX) is an energy company whose principal business is the regulated distribution of natural gas through its Southwest Gas Corporation subsidiary. The utility delivers natural gas to residential, commercial, industrial and other customers, providing an essential energy service for heating, cooking and business operations.

Southwest Gas serves customers across portions of Arizona, Nevada and California through an extensive network of pipelines and related infrastructure.