Dean Investment Associates LLC Reduces Holdings in Northwest Natural Holding (NYSE:NWN)

Dean Investment Associates LLC lowered its position in shares of Northwest Natural Holding (NYSE:NWN - Free Report) by 73.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 36,407 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 101,019 shares during the quarter. Dean Investment Associates LLC owned about 0.09% of Northwest Natural worth $1,486,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Northwest Natural by 30.5% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 32,999 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,229,000 after purchasing an additional 7,715 shares in the last quarter. Comerica Bank increased its position in Northwest Natural by 46.2% during the 1st quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 25,863 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $963,000 after buying an additional 8,173 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in Northwest Natural by 173.5% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 796 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 505 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC boosted its holdings in Northwest Natural by 257.4% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,738 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $135,000 after acquiring an additional 2,692 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in shares of Northwest Natural by 7.5% in the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 6,089 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $220,000 after acquiring an additional 424 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Northwest Natural from $45.00 to $44.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 14th.

Northwest Natural Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NWN traded down $0.14 on Monday, hitting $41.76. 184,325 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 273,206. The company has a market capitalization of $1.68 billion, a PE ratio of 19.70 and a beta of 0.61. Northwest Natural Holding has a one year low of $34.82 and a one year high of $44.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a current ratio of 0.72. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $40.97 and a 200 day simple moving average of $39.14.

Northwest Natural (NYSE:NWN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The utilities provider reported ($0.71) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.79) by $0.08. The business had revenue of $136.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $132.47 million. Northwest Natural had a return on equity of 5.89% and a net margin of 6.90%. The company's quarterly revenue was down 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.65) EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Northwest Natural Holding will post 2.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Northwest Natural Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 31st were paid a $0.49 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 31st. This is a positive change from Northwest Natural's previous quarterly dividend of $0.49. This represents a $1.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.69%. Northwest Natural's payout ratio is currently 92.45%.

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.