Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE:SWX) Stock Has Consensus Price Target of $101.12

Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE:SWX) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the nine analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $101.12.

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on SWX. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Southwest Gas from $105.00 to $107.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Southwest Gas from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Monday, September 14th. Mizuho set a $103.00 price target on shares of Southwest Gas in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Southwest Gas from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Sunday, October 4th. Finally, Wolfe Research started coverage on Southwest Gas in a report on Friday. They set a “peer perform” rating and a $92.00 price objective on the stock.

Southwest Gas Stock Performance

Shares of SWX stock traded down $0.57 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $84.75. The stock had a trading volume of 13,564 shares, compared to its average volume of 584,309. Southwest Gas has a one year low of $76.74 and a one year high of $94.46. The firm has a market cap of $6.14 billion, a PE ratio of 11.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 0.57. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $87.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $88.86. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83.

Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.45. Southwest Gas had a net margin of 31.85% and a return on equity of 6.79%. The firm had revenue of $358.15 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $416.20 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.18) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. Southwest Gas has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.170-4.320 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Southwest Gas will post 4.27 EPS for the current year.

Southwest Gas Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Investors of record on Monday, August 17th were paid a $0.6450 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 17th. This represents a $2.58 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. Southwest Gas’s payout ratio is currently 33.68%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Southwest Gas news, SVP Julie Williams sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.81, for a total value of $204,525.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 26,450 shares in the company, valued at $2,163,874.50. This represents a 8.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.63% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Southwest Gas

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Southwest Gas in the second quarter valued at about $991,549,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in shares of Southwest Gas during the 2nd quarter worth about $74,324,000. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new position in shares of Southwest Gas during the 2nd quarter worth about $39,572,000. BROOKFIELD Corp ON grew its position in shares of Southwest Gas by 106.9% during the 1st quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 699,626 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $60,797,000 after buying an additional 361,556 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its stake in shares of Southwest Gas by 281.2% in the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 459,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $39,887,000 after acquiring an additional 338,600 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.77% of the company’s stock.

About Southwest Gas

Southwest Gas Holdings, Inc (NYSE: SWX) is an energy company whose principal business is the regulated distribution of natural gas through its Southwest Gas Corporation subsidiary. The utility delivers natural gas to residential, commercial, industrial and other customers, providing an essential energy service for heating, cooking and business operations.

Southwest Gas serves customers across portions of Arizona, Nevada and California through an extensive network of pipelines and related infrastructure.