Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) Shares Gap Down – What’s Next?

Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:NGS) shares gapped down before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $42.82, but opened at $41.05. Natural Gas Services Group shares last traded at $40.90, with a volume of 1,926 shares trading hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on NGS shares. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Natural Gas Services Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Natural Gas Services Group from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $44.50.

Natural Gas Services Group Stock Down 4.8%

The company has a market cap of $494.79 million, a P/E ratio of 22.83 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 2.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The company has a fifty day moving average of $39.83 and a 200 day moving average of $36.23.

Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) last posted its earnings results on Monday, May 11th. The oil and gas company reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $48.47 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $47.09 million. Natural Gas Services Group had a return on equity of 7.99% and a net margin of 12.17%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Natural Gas Services Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 20th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 20th. This is a positive change from Natural Gas Services Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.5%. Natural Gas Services Group’s payout ratio is 34.88%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Stephen Charles Taylor sold 70,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.58, for a total transaction of $2,630,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 205,432 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,720,134.56. The trade was a 25.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 3.12% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of NGS. Weber Capital Management LLC ADV bought a new stake in shares of Natural Gas Services Group during the 4th quarter valued at $16,777,000. Cannell Capital LLC raised its holdings in Natural Gas Services Group by 279.3% in the 2nd quarter. Cannell Capital LLC now owns 331,616 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $8,559,000 after purchasing an additional 244,193 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC purchased a new position in Natural Gas Services Group during the fourth quarter valued at $3,591,000. Millennium Management LLC lifted its position in Natural Gas Services Group by 133.7% during the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 169,023 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $4,731,000 after purchasing an additional 96,690 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Natural Gas Services Group by 425.0% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 105,842 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $3,562,000 after purchasing an additional 85,682 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.62% of the company’s stock.

About Natural Gas Services Group

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.