17,000 Shares in Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. $NGS Bought by North Star Investment Management Corp.

North Star Investment Management Corp. bought a new stake in Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:NGS) in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 17,000 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock, valued at approximately $642,000.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Natural Gas Services Group by 831.2% in the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 12,776 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $281,000 after purchasing an additional 11,404 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its stake in Natural Gas Services Group by 5.5% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 98,479 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $2,164,000 after buying an additional 5,125 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Natural Gas Services Group by 1.4% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 230,817 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $5,958,000 after buying an additional 3,221 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Natural Gas Services Group by 44.8% during the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 33,994 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $877,000 after acquiring an additional 10,525 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers raised its holdings in shares of Natural Gas Services Group by 52.4% during the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 16,770 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $433,000 after acquiring an additional 5,763 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 65.62% of the company’s stock.

Natural Gas Services Group Price Performance

Shares of NGS opened at $42.78 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 2.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. has a twelve month low of $22.72 and a twelve month high of $44.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $539.04 million, a P/E ratio of 24.87 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a 50 day moving average of $41.18 and a 200-day moving average of $37.92.

Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 11th. The oil and gas company reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.08. Natural Gas Services Group had a net margin of 12.17% and a return on equity of 7.99%. The business had revenue of $48.47 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $47.09 million. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. will post 2.02 EPS 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 given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This is a boost 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.4%. Natural Gas Services Group’s payout ratio is presently 34.88%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on NGS shares. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Natural Gas Services Group from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. Zacks Research raised Natural Gas Services Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.50.

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.