Navigator Holdings Ltd. (NVGS) Receives Average Rating of “Buy” from Analysts

Navigator Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:NVGS) has received a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the nine analysts that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeatreports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have given a hold recommendation and five have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $14.33.

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on NVGS shares. Zacks Investment Research lowered shares of Navigator Holdings from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 15th. Maxim Group set a $17.00 target price on shares of Navigator Holdings and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 4th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Navigator Holdings from $7.50 to $8.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, BidaskClub raised shares of Navigator Holdings from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 6th.

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of NVGS. OLD National Bancorp IN raised its stake in Navigator Holdings by 17.6% in the second quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 140,000 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $1,162,000 after buying an additional 21,000 shares in the last quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Navigator Holdings by 474.3% in the first quarter. Driehaus Capital Management LLC now owns 312,085 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $4,291,000 after buying an additional 257,745 shares in the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Navigator Holdings during the first quarter worth approximately $295,000. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. raised its stake in Navigator Holdings by 13.8% in the first quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 1,638,805 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $22,533,000 after buying an additional 198,418 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its stake in Navigator Holdings by 25.9% in the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 66,200 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $910,000 after buying an additional 13,600 shares in the last quarter. 68.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Navigator Holdings has a 1-year low of $6.47 and a 1-year high of $14.75. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $8.26 and its 200-day moving average is $10.75. The stock has a market cap of $580.30 million, a PE ratio of 20.90 and a beta of 1.01.

Navigator Holdings (NYSE:NVGS) last announced its earnings results on Monday, May 8th. The shipping company reported $0.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.08 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $77.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $63.83 million. Navigator Holdings had a net margin of 9.48% and a return on equity of 3.23%. Navigator Holdings’s revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.35 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Navigator Holdings will post $0.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.