Rice Hall James & Associates LLC Makes New Investment in Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. $NGS

Rice Hall James & Associates LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:NGS) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 43,343 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,870,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Crown Advisors Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Natural Gas Services Group during the 2nd quarter worth about $3,451,000. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Natural Gas Services Group during the second quarter worth approximately $644,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in Natural Gas Services Group during the second quarter worth approximately $4,219,000. State of Wyoming acquired a new position in Natural Gas Services Group during the second quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Finally, GSA Capital Partners LLP acquired a new position in Natural Gas Services Group during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,595,000. 65.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Natural Gas Services Group Trading Down 1.8%

Shares of Natural Gas Services Group stock opened at $37.55 on Wednesday. Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. has a 1 year low of $24.73 and a 1 year high of $44.60. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $39.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $39.04. The company has a market cap of $484.45 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.33 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11.

Natural Gas Services Group (NYSE:NGS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 10th. The oil and gas company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by $0.07. Natural Gas Services Group had a net margin of 10.81% and a return on equity of 8.10%. The firm had revenue of $51.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $50.24 million. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

Natural Gas Services Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 19th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 19th. Natural Gas Services Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.27%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NGS has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Natural Gas Services Group from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Natural Gas Services Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Raymond James Financial upped their price target on shares of Natural Gas Services Group from $53.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on 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 analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Natural Gas Services Group currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $50.50.

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.