Southwest Gas Corporation $SWX Shares Sold by Legal & General Group Plc

Key Points

• Legal & General Group Plc cut its Southwest Gas stake by 24% in the fourth quarter, selling 32,122 shares and leaving it with 101,536 shares worth about $8.1 million.
• Southwest Gas reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings of $1.91 per share, though revenue came in below estimates and fell 21.6% year over year.
• The company raised its quarterly dividend to $0.645 per share, and analyst sentiment remains positive with an average rating of Buy and a target price of $97.

Legal & General Group Plc cut its holdings in Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE:SWX - Free Report) by 24.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 101,536 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 32,122 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.14% of Southwest Gas worth $8,125,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Southwest Gas by 0.3% in the 3rd 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 during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Southwest Gas by 146.9% in the 3rd 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 during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Southwest Gas by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,054,869 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $82,637,000 after buying an additional 10,015 shares during the period. Gabelli Funds LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Southwest Gas by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 1,014,287 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $81,163,000 after buying an additional 4,145 shares during the period. Finally, Channing Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Southwest Gas by 32.1% in the 3rd quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC now owns 930,695 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $72,911,000 after purchasing an additional 226,231 shares during the last quarter. 92.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Southwest Gas Trading Up 1.8%

Shares of NYSE:SWX opened at $88.72 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $89.38 and a 200-day moving average of $85.59. The firm has a market cap of $6.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.86, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.58. Southwest Gas Corporation has a twelve month low of $70.03 and a twelve month high of $94.43. 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 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.88 by $0.03. Southwest Gas had a net margin of 19.95% and a return on equity of 6.95%. The business had revenue of $585.12 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $695.52 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.58 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 21.6% on a year-over-year basis. Southwest Gas has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.170-4.320 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Southwest Gas Corporation will post 4.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southwest Gas Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th were issued a $0.645 dividend. This represents a $2.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 15th. This is an increase from Southwest Gas's previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. Southwest Gas's payout ratio is presently 37.39%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SWX has been the topic of several recent research reports. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Southwest Gas from $99.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. UBS Group set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Southwest Gas in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Southwest Gas from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. 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 on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $97.00.

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.

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