Palm Valley Capital Management, an investment management firm, released the “Palm Valley Capital Fund” first quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the first quarter, Palm Valley Capital Fund increased 1.04% compared to 2.46% and 5.69% gains for the S&P SmallCap 600 Index and the Morningstar Small Cap Index, respectively. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2024.
Palm Valley Capital Fund featured stocks like Northwest Natural Holding Company (NYSE:NWN) in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, Northwest Natural Holding Company (NYSE:NWN) provides regulated natural gas distribution services. On April 4, 2024, Northwest Natural Holding Company (NYSE:NWN) stock closed at $36.75 per share. One-month return of Northwest Natural Holding Company (NYSE:NWN) was -2.52%, and its shares lost 24.71% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Northwest Natural Holding Company (NYSE:NWN) has a market capitalization of $1.385 billion.
Palm Valley Capital Fund stated the following regarding Northwest Natural Holding Company (NYSE:NWN) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“During the quarter, we purchased Northwest Natural Holding Company (NYSE:NWN). Founded in 1859, NW Natural is a natural gas utility operating in Oregon and Washington. While the company targets long-term earnings growth of 4%-6%, earnings per share in 2024 are expected to decline by 7% to 15%. Earnings are being pressured by above average investments in the utility’s infrastructure and higher than expected inflation. In response, management filed for a rate increase with regulators in December 2023, which would provide the utility with a 10.1% return on equity. If approved, new rates are expected to go into effect in November and should move earnings in 2025 closer to our normalized estimate of $2.80/share. NW Natural is currently trading at 13x our normalized EPS estimate and 1.2x tangible book value—both near historical lows. The firm has increased its dividend for 68 years in a row, and the stock offers a 5.3% yield. While there remains uncertainty related to regulatory decisions and interest rates, at its current price, we believe we’re being adequately compensated for risk assumed.”
A construction worker welding a gas pipeline on a gas storage facility.
Northwest Natural Holding Company (NYSE:NWN) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. At the end of the fourth quarter, Northwest Natural Holding Company (NYSE:NWN) was held by 11 hedge fund portfolios, compared to 9 in the previous quarter, according to our database.
We discussed Northwest Natural Holding Company (NYSE:NWN) in another article and shared the list of high growth utility stocks to buy. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
Suggested Articles:
- 20 Most Buddhist Countries in Asia
- 40 Least Visited Countries in the World
- 20 Countries Most in Debt to China
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
