New York State Common Retirement Fund Trims Stock Holdings in Southwest Gas Corporation $SWX

New York State Common Retirement Fund reduced its stake in Southwest Gas Corporation by 27% in Q2. Analysts have mixed ratings, with a consensus price target of $84.50. SWX stock opened at $79.83, with a 52-week range of $64.69-$83.11. The company reported Q3 earnings below expectations, with revenue down 11.8% year-over-year. A quarterly dividend was announced.

New York State Common Retirement Fund lowered its position in shares of Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE:SWX - Free Report) by 27.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 172,077 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 63,731 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned about 0.24% of Southwest Gas worth $12,801,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of SWX. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Southwest Gas by 20.9% during the second quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 880 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $65,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares during the period. BTC Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Southwest Gas by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. BTC Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,344 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $248,000 after buying an additional 159 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its position in Southwest Gas by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 10,673 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $794,000 after buying an additional 188 shares during the last quarter. MAI Capital Management lifted its stake in Southwest Gas by 19.7% during the 2nd quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 1,686 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $125,000 after acquiring an additional 278 shares during the period. Finally, Spirit of America Management Corp NY lifted its stake in Southwest Gas by 9.5% during the 2nd quarter. Spirit of America Management Corp NY now owns 3,450 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $257,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the period. 92.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Southwest Gas from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Mizuho initiated coverage on shares of Southwest Gas in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $91.00 price target on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Southwest Gas from $82.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Bank of America raised Southwest Gas from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $76.00 to $84.00 in a report on Friday, August 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Southwest Gas in a report on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $84.50.

View Our Latest Stock Analysis on SWX

Southwest Gas Trading Down 1.1%

SWX stock opened at $79.83 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.43, a current ratio of 1.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. Southwest Gas Corporation has a 52-week low of $64.69 and a 52-week high of $83.11. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $79.84 and its 200-day simple moving average is $77.37. The firm has a market cap of $5.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.43, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 0.63.

Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.06 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.09 by ($0.03). Southwest Gas had a return on equity of 6.78% and a net margin of 11.59%.The business had revenue of $316.91 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.08 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.09 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Southwest Gas Corporation will post 3.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Gas Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be issued a $0.62 dividend. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 17th. Southwest Gas's payout ratio is presently 38.63%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Southwest Gas news, major shareholder Carl C. Icahn sold 1,500,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.91, for a total transaction of $116,865,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 6,032,604 shares in the company, valued at approximately $470,000,177.64. This represents a 19.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.39% of the company's stock.

Southwest Gas Profile

(Free Report)

Southwest Gas Holdings, Inc, through its subsidiaries, distributes and transports natural gas in Arizona, Nevada, and California. The company operates through Natural Gas Distribution, Utility Infrastructure Services, and Pipeline and Storage segments. It also provides trenching, installation, and replacement of underground pipes, as well as maintenance services for energy distribution systems.

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