River Road Asset Management LLC Sells 176,935 Shares of Southwest Gas Corporation $SWX

Key Points

• River Road Asset Management reduced its Southwest Gas stake by 16% in the fourth quarter, selling 176,935 shares and leaving it with 927,263 shares worth about $74.2 million.
• Institutional ownership in Southwest Gas remains high at 92.77%, and several other funds recently increased or initiated positions in the stock.
• Analysts are broadly positive on SWX, with an average Buy rating and a consensus price target of $97.29; the stock also recently traded near $88.30 and the company raised its quarterly dividend to $0.645 per share.

River Road Asset Management LLC cut its position in shares of Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE:SWX - Free Report) by 16.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 927,263 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 176,935 shares during the quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC owned approximately 1.28% of Southwest Gas worth $74,200,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in SWX. Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in Southwest Gas by 74.7% in the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 209,934 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $15,073,000 after buying an additional 89,761 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its stake in shares of Southwest Gas by 14.9% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 190,852 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $13,703,000 after buying an additional 24,688 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp bought a new position in shares of Southwest Gas in the second quarter valued at approximately $213,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in shares of Southwest Gas by 70.3% in the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 36,647 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $2,726,000 after acquiring an additional 15,127 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Southwest Gas by 2.6% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 393,080 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $29,241,000 after acquiring an additional 10,122 shares during the last quarter. 92.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SWX has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Southwest Gas from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 9th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Southwest Gas from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. UBS Group set a $100.00 price target on shares of Southwest Gas in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Southwest Gas from a "buy (b+)" rating to a "buy (a-)" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Southwest Gas from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $100.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $97.29.

Southwest Gas Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SWX opened at $88.30 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $89.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $86.09. Southwest Gas Corporation has a 1-year low of $72.43 and a 1-year high of $94.43. The firm has a market cap of $6.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84.

Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.88 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $585.12 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $695.52 million. Southwest Gas had a return on equity of 6.95% and a net margin of 19.95%.The business's revenue for the quarter was down 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.58 earnings per share. Southwest Gas has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.170-4.320 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Southwest Gas Corporation will post 4.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Southwest Gas Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th were issued a $0.645 dividend. This is an increase from Southwest Gas's previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. This represents a $2.58 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. Southwest Gas's payout ratio is 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.

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