Illumine Investment Management LLC Takes $1.06 Million Position in Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. $NGS

Illumine Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:NGS) during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 27,985 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,056,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT acquired a new position in shares of Natural Gas Services Group in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. State of Alaska Department of Revenue acquired a new stake in shares of Natural Gas Services Group during the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in Natural Gas Services Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $106,000. Kemnay Advisory Services Inc. purchased a new position in Natural Gas Services Group during the fourth quarter worth about $114,000. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased its position in shares of Natural Gas Services Group by 20.1% during the fourth quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 4,602 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $154,000 after acquiring an additional 771 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.62% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NGS has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Zacks Research raised shares of Natural Gas Services Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Raymond James Financial upped their price target on Natural Gas Services Group from $53.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Natural Gas Services Group in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Natural Gas Services Group from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $50.50.

Natural Gas Services Group Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of NYSE:NGS opened at $40.48 on Tuesday. Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. has a 52 week low of $22.72 and a 52 week high of $44.60. The company’s 50 day moving average is $41.41 and its two-hundred day moving average is $38.42. The company has a market cap of $510.10 million, a PE ratio of 23.54 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a current ratio of 2.70, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 11th. The oil and gas company reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $48.47 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $47.09 million. Natural Gas Services Group had a net margin of 12.17% and a return on equity of 7.99%. Equities analysts predict that Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. will post 2.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Natural Gas Services Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th were issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This is a positive change from Natural Gas Services Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 20th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.5%. Natural Gas Services Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 34.88%.

Natural Gas Services Group Company Profile

Natural Gas Services Group, Inc (NYSE: NGS) is an energy infrastructure company specializing in natural gas distribution and compression services across the United States. The company operates two primary lines of business: the Distribution segment provides natural gas delivery to residential, commercial and industrial customers, while the Compression Services segment rents, sells and services a diversified fleet of compression equipment for midstream and industrial applications.

In its Distribution segment, Natural Gas Services Group engineers, constructs and maintains local pipeline networks, meters and related apparatus to ensure safe and reliable natural gas supply to municipal utilities and private customers.