Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Buys New Shares in Southwest Gas Corporation $SWX

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new position in shares of Southwest Gas Corporation (NYSE:SWX) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 37,471 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,323,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. raised its position in Southwest Gas by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 10,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $867,000 after acquiring an additional 132 shares in the last quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund grew its position in shares of Southwest Gas by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 10,431 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $835,000 after acquiring an additional 135 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Southwest Gas by 8.5% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,960 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $174,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC increased its stake in shares of Southwest Gas by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 14,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,160,000 after purchasing an additional 159 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Southwest Gas by 21.3% in the 2nd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 939 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $70,000 after purchasing an additional 165 shares during the period. 92.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SWX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Mizuho set a $103.00 target price on shares of Southwest Gas in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Southwest Gas from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 8th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Southwest Gas from $105.00 to $107.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded Southwest Gas from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a research note on Monday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Southwest Gas currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $100.67.

Southwest Gas Stock Performance

Shares of SWX stock opened at $88.03 on Friday. Southwest Gas Corporation has a 52 week low of $76.59 and a 52 week high of $94.46. The company has a market capitalization of $6.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.49, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $90.77 and a 200 day simple moving average of $89.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.12.

Southwest Gas (NYSE:SWX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.45. The firm had revenue of $358.15 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $416.20 million. Southwest Gas had a net margin of 31.85% and a return on equity of 6.79%. The business’s revenue was down 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.18) EPS. Southwest Gas has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.170-4.320 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Southwest Gas Corporation will post 4.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Southwest Gas Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 17th were paid a dividend of $0.645 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 17th. This represents a $2.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.9%. Southwest Gas’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.68%.

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.