ProShare Advisors LLC Has $6.58 Million Position in Northwest Natural Holding (NYSE:NWN)

ProShare Advisors LLC cut its position in Northwest Natural Holding (NYSE:NWN) by 15.4% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 182,150 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 33,078 shares during the quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in Northwest Natural were worth $6,577,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sei Investments Co. increased its position in shares of Northwest Natural by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 24,198 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $874,000 after buying an additional 800 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC bought a new stake in shares of Northwest Natural in the second quarter worth about $235,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its position in shares of Northwest Natural by 406.0% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 144,198 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,207,000 after purchasing an additional 115,698 shares during the period. WINTON GROUP Ltd bought a new position in shares of Northwest Natural during the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,031,000. Finally, Guardian Wealth Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Northwest Natural by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 12,012 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $434,000 after purchasing an additional 447 shares during the period. 75.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Northwest Natural from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Janney Montgomery Scott upgraded shares of Northwest Natural from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $36.00 to $43.00 in a report on Monday, August 5th.

Northwest Natural Stock Up 0.1 %

NYSE:NWN opened at $40.03 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $39.54 and a 200 day simple moving average of $37.79. Northwest Natural Holding has a 52-week low of $34.82 and a 52-week high of $41.20. The company has a market cap of $1.52 billion, a PE ratio of 17.56 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.97.

Northwest Natural (NYSE:NWN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The utilities provider reported ($0.07) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.13) by $0.06. The company had revenue of $211.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $231.99 million. Northwest Natural had a net margin of 7.18% and a return on equity of 6.31%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.03 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Northwest Natural Holding will post 2.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Northwest Natural Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 31st were given a dividend of $0.488 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, July 31st. This represents a $1.95 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.88%. Northwest Natural’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 85.53%.

Northwest Natural Company Profile

Northwest Natural Holding Company, through its subsidiary, Northwest Natural Gas Company, provides regulated natural gas distribution services to residential, commercial, and industrial customers in the United States. The company operates a mist gas storage facility contracted to other utilities, third-party marketers, and electric generators; offers natural gas asset management services; and operates an appliance retail center.