Northwest Natural (NYSE:NWN) Releases Q3 Earnings Guidance

Northwest Natural (NYSE:NWN) updated its third quarter earnings guidance on Friday. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of ($0.86)-($0.74) for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of ($0.77). Northwest Natural also updated its FY 2024 guidance to 2.200-2.400 EPS.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on NWN. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Northwest Natural from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 7th. StockNews.com cut shares of Northwest Natural from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $41.40.

Northwest Natural Stock Performance

NWN traded down $1.44 on Friday, reaching $38.92. The stock had a trading volume of 423,438 shares, compared to its average volume of 234,778. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $37.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $37.21. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17. Northwest Natural has a 12-month low of $34.82 and a 12-month high of $42.92. The company has a market cap of $1.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.07 and a beta of 0.57.

Northwest Natural (NYSE:NWN) last announced its earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The utilities provider reported ($0.07) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.12) by $0.05. Northwest Natural had a return on equity of 6.76% and a net margin of 7.36%. The business had revenue of $211.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $231.99 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.03 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Northwest Natural will post 2.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Northwest Natural Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 31st will be given a $0.488 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 31st. This represents a $1.95 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.02%. 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.