Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE:SWX) Short Interest Up 21.3% in March

Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE:SWX) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 13th, there was short interest totaling 1,277,877 shares, a growth of 21.3% from the February 26th total of 1,053,173 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 533,157 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.4 days. Currently, 1.8% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SWX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Mizuho set a $96.00 price target on Southwest Gas in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Southwest Gas from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $82.00 to $99.00 in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Southwest Gas in a research report on Monday, December 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $88.40.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Southwest Gas by 905.3% during the third quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 382 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 344 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Southwest Gas by 223.5% in the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 440 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 304 shares during the period. Kingdom Financial Group LLC. acquired a new position in shares of Southwest Gas during the 4th quarter valued at $56,000. Harbour Investments Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Southwest Gas by 301.0% during the 4th quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 834 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $67,000 after acquiring an additional 626 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its position in Southwest Gas by 21.3% during the 2nd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 939 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $70,000 after purchasing an additional 165 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.77% of the company’s stock.

Southwest Gas Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of SWX opened at $87.35 on Tuesday. Southwest Gas has a twelve month low of $64.69 and a twelve month high of $90.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $85.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $82.26.

Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $1.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.40 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $480.74 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $587.01 million. Southwest Gas had a net margin of 14.77% and a return on equity of 6.62%. Southwest Gas’s revenue was down 13.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.39 EPS. Southwest Gas has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.170-4.320 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Southwest Gas will post 3.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Southwest Gas Company 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.