Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. $NGS Shares Sold by Renaissance Technologies LLC

Renaissance Technologies LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:NGS) by 7.2% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 238,042 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after selling 18,400 shares during the quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC’s holdings in Natural Gas Services Group were worth $8,984,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Natural Gas Services Group by 831.2% during the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 12,776 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $281,000 after purchasing an additional 11,404 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its stake in Natural Gas Services Group by 5.5% in the 1st 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 lifted its stake in Natural Gas Services Group by 1.4% in the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Natural Gas Services Group by 44.8% in the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 33,994 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $877,000 after buying an additional 10,525 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers boosted its holdings in Natural Gas Services Group by 52.4% in the 2nd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 16,770 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $433,000 after buying an additional 5,763 shares during the last quarter. 65.62% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on NGS. Raymond James Financial boosted their price objective on Natural Gas Services Group from $53.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on 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. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Natural Gas Services Group in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Natural Gas Services Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and three have issued a Buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $50.50.

Natural Gas Services Group Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of NYSE NGS opened at $36.71 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $462.52 million, a PE ratio of 21.34 and a beta of 0.42. 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, Inc. has a 12-month low of $22.72 and a 12-month high of $44.60. The company has a 50-day moving average of $40.42 and a 200 day moving average of $38.81.

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

Natural Gas Services Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 20th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This is a boost from Natural Gas Services Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 20th. Natural Gas Services Group’s payout ratio is 34.88%.

About Natural Gas Services Group

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.