Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) Reaches New 1-Year High – Here’s Why

Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE:SWX) hit a new 52-week high on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $93.44 and last traded at $91.3590, with a volume of 356677 shares. The stock had previously closed at $93.18.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on SWX shares. Mizuho set a $96.00 price target on Southwest Gas in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Southwest Gas in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Citigroup raised Southwest Gas from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $82.00 to $99.00 in a report on Thursday, January 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Southwest Gas currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $88.40.

Southwest Gas Price Performance

The company has a 50 day moving average price of $87.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $83.18. The firm has a market cap of $6.58 billion, a PE ratio of 13.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87.

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

Southwest Gas Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 15th will be given a $0.645 dividend. This is an increase from Southwest Gas’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. This represents a $2.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 15th. Southwest Gas’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.75%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Southwest Gas by 0.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,052,987 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $552,531,000 after buying an additional 19,403 shares in the last quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. increased its position in shares of Southwest Gas by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 2,048,053 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $163,885,000 after buying an additional 94,535 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Southwest Gas by 146.9% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,773,068 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $138,902,000 after buying an additional 1,054,963 shares in the last quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. increased its position 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 valued at $131,913,000 after buying an additional 228,496 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Southwest Gas by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,602,100 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $128,219,000 after buying an additional 9,515 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.77% of the company’s stock.

About Southwest Gas

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.