Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. Buys New Stake in Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. $NGS

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new position in Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:NGS) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 80,456 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,471,000.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT bought a new stake in shares of Natural Gas Services Group in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. State of Wyoming acquired a new stake in Natural Gas Services Group in the 2nd quarter valued at $36,000. Kemnay Advisory Services Inc. bought a new stake in Natural Gas Services Group in the fourth quarter valued at $114,000. Royal Bank of Canada raised its stake in Natural Gas Services Group by 20.1% during the fourth quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 4,602 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $154,000 after acquiring an additional 771 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Natural Gas Services Group by 437.9% during the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 4,965 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $167,000 after acquiring an additional 4,042 shares during the period. 65.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Natural Gas Services Group Stock Down 2.2%

Shares of NYSE:NGS opened at $34.61 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11. The firm has a market cap of $446.47 million, a P/E ratio of 21.50 and a beta of 0.42. Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. has a 12 month low of $25.53 and a 12 month high of $44.60. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $38.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $39.02.

Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) last announced its earnings results on Monday, August 10th. The oil and gas company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $51.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $50.24 million. Natural Gas Services Group had a net margin of 10.81% and a return on equity of 8.10%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. will post 1.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Natural Gas Services Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 19th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 19th. Natural Gas Services Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.27%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on NGS. Raymond James Financial upped their target price on shares of Natural Gas Services Group from $53.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 10th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Natural Gas Services Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective 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. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Natural Gas Services Group from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $50.50.

Natural Gas Services Group 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.