Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) Upgraded to Strong-Buy at Wells Fargo & Company

Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) was upgraded by Wells Fargo & Company to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other research firms have also commented on SWX. UBS Group set a $100.00 price target on shares of Southwest Gas in a report on Thursday, May 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Southwest Gas from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $100.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Southwest Gas from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Southwest Gas from $99.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Mizuho set a $96.00 price target on shares of Southwest Gas in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $97.00.

Southwest Gas Trading Up 0.9%

Shares of SWX stock opened at $89.96 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $6.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.04, a PEG ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 0.62. Southwest Gas has a 1-year low of $66.93 and a 1-year high of $94.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 1.32. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $89.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $84.68.

Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.88 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $585.12 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $695.52 million. Southwest Gas had a net margin of 19.95% and a return on equity of 6.95%. The company’s revenue was down 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.58 EPS. Southwest Gas has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.170-4.320 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Southwest Gas will post 4.25 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Southwest Gas

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of SWX. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Southwest Gas by 905.3% in the third quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 382 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 344 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Southwest Gas by 223.5% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 440 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 304 shares in the last quarter. Kingdom Financial Group LLC. acquired a new stake in Southwest Gas in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $56,000. Harbour Investments Inc. grew its position in Southwest Gas by 301.0% in the fourth quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 834 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $67,000 after acquiring an additional 626 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its position in Southwest Gas by 21.3% in the second quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 939 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $70,000 after acquiring an additional 165 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.77% of the company’s stock.

Southwest Gas Company Profile

Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE: SWX) is a publicly traded natural gas utility that provides regulated gas distribution services to residential, commercial, industrial and electric generation customers. The company’s core activities include the transportation, distribution and sale of natural gas through an extensive network of pipelines, service lines and metering facilities. Southwest Gas also offers related services such as system maintenance, pipeline safety inspections, emergency response and line extensions to support customer growth and ensure reliable gas delivery.

Founded in 1931 in southern Nevada, Southwest Gas has grown through strategic acquisitions and organic expansion to become one of the nation’s larger natural gas utilities by customer count.