Media stories about Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) have trended positive on Sunday, Accern Sentiment reports. Accern ranks the sentiment of media coverage by analyzing more than twenty million news and blog sources in real time. Accern ranks coverage of companies on a scale of negative one to one, with scores closest to one being the most favorable. Southwest Gas earned a coverage optimism score of 0.25 on Accern’s scale. Accern also gave news articles about the utilities provider an impact score of 47.6549396344059 out of 100, meaning that recent media coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an impact on the stock’s share price in the near future.
These are some of the news articles that may have effected Accern Sentiment’s scoring:
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Should You Be Tempted To Buy Southwest Gas Holdings Inc (NYSE:SWX) Because Of Its PE Ratio? (finance.yahoo.com) Jefferies Financial Group Analysts Lower Earnings Estimates for Southwest Gas Holdings Inc (SWX) (americanbankingnews.com) Jefferies Financial Group Weighs in on Southwest Gas Holdings Inc’s Q2 2018 Earnings (SWX) (americanbankingnews.com) Consolidated Research: 2018 Summary Expectations for KAR Auction Services, XPO Logistics, La-Z-Boy, Southwest Gas, Greif, and Guidewire Software Fundamental Analysis, Key Performance Indications (finance.yahoo.com) Southwest Gas President & CEO John P. Hester interviewed by Advisor Access (finance.yahoo.com)
Shares of NYSE:SWX opened at $77.96 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.54 and a beta of 0.53. Southwest Gas has a fifty-two week low of $62.53 and a fifty-two week high of $86.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.10.
Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $1.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $754.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $524.56 million. Southwest Gas had a net margin of 7.69% and a return on equity of 10.32%. Southwest Gas’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.45 EPS. research analysts expect that Southwest Gas will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 14th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.67%. Southwest Gas’s payout ratio is 57.46%.
A number of research firms have recently issued reports on SWX. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Southwest Gas from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 5th. Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of Southwest Gas from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 30th. ValuEngine upgraded shares of Southwest Gas from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 29th. Williams Capital began coverage on shares of Southwest Gas in a research report on Tuesday, April 10th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $73.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $69.00 price objective on shares of Southwest Gas in a research report on Wednesday, March 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $77.00.
In other Southwest Gas news, Director Thomas E. Chestnut sold 1,600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.80, for a total transaction of $119,680.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 26,529 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,984,369.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Karen S. Haller sold 714 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.72, for a total transaction of $50,494.08. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 24,216 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,712,555.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 4,903 shares of company stock worth $356,889. 0.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.
About Southwest Gas
Southwest Gas Holdings, Inc, through its subsidiaries, purchases, distributes, and transports natural gas in Arizona, Nevada, and California. The company operates through Natural Gas Operations and Construction Services segments. As of December 31, 2017, it had 2,015,000 residential, commercial, industrial, and other natural gas customers.
