Renaissance Technologies LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Southwest Gas Corporation $SWX

Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its position in shares of Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE:SWX) by 281.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 459,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 338,600 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC’s holdings in Southwest Gas were worth $39,887,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SWX. Norges Bank bought a new position in Southwest Gas in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $66,930,000. BROOKFIELD Corp ON bought a new stake in shares of Southwest Gas in the 4th quarter worth $27,052,000. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. raised its stake in shares of Southwest Gas by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 1,648,496 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $131,913,000 after purchasing an additional 228,496 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP bought a new position in shares of Southwest Gas during the third quarter valued at $16,200,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Southwest Gas by 50.1% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 604,268 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $48,353,000 after purchasing an additional 201,560 shares in the last quarter. 92.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SWX has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings upgraded Southwest Gas from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Southwest Gas from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Southwest Gas from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $100.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Southwest Gas from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, July 12th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Southwest Gas from $99.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $97.29.

Southwest Gas Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of Southwest Gas stock opened at $92.07 on Tuesday. Southwest Gas Corporation has a 1-year low of $75.75 and a 1-year high of $94.46. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $89.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $88.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 1.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.66 billion, a PE ratio of 13.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.58.

Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.91 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.88 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $585.12 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $695.52 million. Southwest Gas had a return on equity of 6.95% and a net margin of 19.95%.Southwest Gas’s revenue for the quarter was down 21.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.58 EPS. Southwest Gas has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.170-4.320 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Southwest Gas Corporation will post 4.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Southwest Gas Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 17th will be given a dividend of $0.645 per share. This represents a $2.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 17th. Southwest Gas’s payout ratio is presently 37.39%.

Southwest Gas Profile

Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE: SWX) is a publicly traded natural gas utility that provides regulated gas distribution services to residential, commercial, industrial and electric generation customers. The company’s core activities include the transportation, distribution and sale of natural gas through an extensive network of pipelines, service lines and metering facilities. Southwest Gas also offers related services such as system maintenance, pipeline safety inspections, emergency response and line extensions to support customer growth and ensure reliable gas delivery.

Founded in 1931 in southern Nevada, Southwest Gas has grown through strategic acquisitions and organic expansion to become one of the nation’s larger natural gas utilities by customer count.