Wedge Capital Management L L P NC Grows Position in Northwest Natural Gas Company $NWN

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC grew its stake in shares of Northwest Natural Gas Company (NYSE:NWN) by 79.7% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 63,426 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 28,129 shares during the quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC’s holdings in Northwest Natural Gas were worth $3,112,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of NWN. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Northwest Natural Gas by 6.7% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,083,304 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $82,749,000 after acquiring an additional 131,019 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Northwest Natural Gas by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 989,578 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $46,261,000 after acquiring an additional 16,297 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of Northwest Natural Gas by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 860,956 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $38,683,000 after purchasing an additional 3,512 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Northwest Natural Gas by 2.6% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 743,512 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $39,571,000 after acquiring an additional 18,669 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Northwest Natural Gas by 74.2% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 587,016 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $27,437,000 after purchasing an additional 250,025 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director David Hugo Anderson sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.18, for a total transaction of $76,770.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 52,259 shares in the company, valued at $2,674,615.62. This represents a 2.79% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.55% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Northwest Natural Gas Trading Up 0.9%

Shares of Northwest Natural Gas stock opened at $50.80 on Friday. Northwest Natural Gas Company has a 1 year low of $39.98 and a 1 year high of $55.99. The company has a market cap of $2.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.93 and a beta of 0.43. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $50.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is $50.76. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52.

Northwest Natural Gas (NYSE:NWN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.08) by $0.09. Northwest Natural Gas had a return on equity of 8.33% and a net margin of 9.75%.The firm had revenue of $243.55 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $271.87 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.01 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Northwest Natural Gas has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.950-3.150 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Northwest Natural Gas Company will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Northwest Natural Gas Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 31st will be paid a $0.4925 dividend. This represents a $1.97 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 31st. Northwest Natural Gas’s payout ratio is currently 65.67%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on NWN. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Northwest Natural Gas from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $50.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Northwest Natural Gas in a research note on Friday, May 29th. TD Cowen initiated coverage on shares of Northwest Natural Gas in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $58.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Freedom Capital raised shares of Northwest Natural Gas from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $55.25.

About Northwest Natural Gas

Northwest Natural Gas (NYSE: NWN), commonly known as NW Natural, is a publicly traded energy utility primarily engaged in the distribution of natural gas to residential, commercial and industrial customers. Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, the company operates an extensive pipeline network spanning thousands of miles across Oregon and southwest Washington. Its core business activities include gas procurement, system operation and maintenance, safety inspections and customer service support.

Dating back to the mid-19th century, Northwest Natural traces its origins to the Portland Gas Light Company, which first illuminated Portland streets with manufactured gas in 1859.