Encompass Capital Advisors LLC Sells 801,616 Shares of Navigator Holdings Ltd. $NVGS

Encompass Capital Advisors LLC cut its stake in Navigator Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:NVGS) by 55.8% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 635,601 shares of the shipping company’s stock after selling 801,616 shares during the period. Encompass Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Navigator were worth $11,009,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. First Manhattan CO. LLC. grew 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 worth $24,768,000 after purchasing an additional 311,259 shares during the last quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Navigator by 29.1% in the fourth quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 507,779 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $8,795,000 after purchasing an additional 114,532 shares during the last quarter. 683 Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Navigator by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. 683 Capital Management LLC now owns 186,000 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $3,222,000 after purchasing an additional 6,000 shares during the last quarter. 9823 Capital L.P. bought a new position in shares of Navigator in the fourth quarter worth about $183,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Navigator by 54.5% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 95,680 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $1,657,000 after purchasing an additional 33,764 shares during the last quarter. 18.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Navigator

In other news, insider Oeyvind Lindeman sold 6,259 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.70, for a total value of $135,820.30. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Michael Schroder sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.63, for a total transaction of $590,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 5,000 shares in the company, 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. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NVGS has been the topic of several recent research reports. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Navigator from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Zacks Research cut shares of Navigator from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Navigator from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Navigator from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, March 15th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $23.33.

Navigator Stock Down 2.2%

Shares of Navigator stock opened at $21.96 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.16 and a quick ratio of 1.10. Navigator Holdings Ltd. has a 1 year low of $13.90 and a 1 year high of $24.36. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $21.97 and its two-hundred day moving average is $19.79. The stock has a market cap of $1.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.47, a PEG ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 0.44.

Navigator (NYSE:NVGS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The shipping company reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.16. Navigator had a net margin of 18.84% and a return on equity of 7.01%. The company had revenue of $140.62 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $139.35 million. As a group, research analysts expect that Navigator Holdings Ltd. will post 1.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Navigator Dividend Announcement

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

Navigator 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).