Analysts at Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of Southwest Gas Corp. (NYSE: SWX) from Sell to Hold today.With a rating of Hold on the shares, the company has a 52-week high of $79.58. The one-year price target of $73.50 is higher than the opening price of $70.49, resulting a fair amount of other analysts to comment on the company in recent days. Typically, after analysts publish an upgrade report on a stock, they will subsequently issue other updates, such as a price target change.
U.S. stocks on Monday closed mostly flat, after trading firmly higher, in a volatile session ahead of the start of a pair of closely watched central-bank policy meetings.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.02% closed down 3.63 points at 18,120.17.
The blue-chip index had been up by as much as 131 points earlier and traded within a 162-point range.
The S&P 500 SPX, +0.00% slipped 0.04 points to close at 2,139.12, after trading within an 18-point range
Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, -0.18% declined 9.54 points, or 0.2%, to close at 5,235.03.
Earlier, the index had been up by as many as 37 points and traded with a 58-point range
Shares of Southwest Gas Corp. (NYSE: SWX) opened at $70.49 yesterday trading between $70.19 and $70.80, and last traded at $70.42, an increase of $0.25 from the previous closing price.
Southwest Gas Corp. (NYSE: SWX) now has a market cap of 3.34B.
31,520 shares crossed the trading desk yesterday, 32 percent lower than the average, out of a total float 46,909,000. Momentum traders often use upticks in trading volume to determine large volume growth or circulation by institutional investors, so trading volume is likely to increase in the next few days.
While higher trading for short periods will not mean much, conversely, a trend of heavy trading volume on the buy side over a series of days or weeks expresses a positive cue to market traders that institutions may be moving in, so institutional sponsorship is very important.
Institutional sponsorship is defined by ownership of a stock by mutual funds, banks, pension funds and other large institutions.
These professional investors retain substantial teams of analysts researching thousands of stocks. Thus, watching their interests is a good way to ensure you are buying the right stocks.
By following the activity of these professional investors and how they affect moving averages,it allows for traders to make more useful judgments on trades.
With that in mind, Southwest Gas Corp. (NYSE: SWX) now has a 50-day MA of $72.01 and 200-day MA of $70.44. It has traded in a 52-week range between $50.53 – 79.58 and today’s last price is 0.12% lower than the 52 week high of $79.58.
Earnings growth is a critical factor to research when investing in stocks and investors seek companies that have grown their earnings at least 25% or more for 3 consecutive years.
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