Southwest Gas Corp. Reports Operating Results (10-K)

Southwest Gas Corp. (NYSE:SWX) filed Annual Report for the period ended 2010-12-31.

Southwest Gas Corp. has a market cap of $1.77 billion; its shares were traded at around $38.93 with a P/E ratio of 15.39 and P/S ratio of 0.94. The dividend yield of Southwest Gas Corp. stocks is 2.57%. Southwest Gas Corp. had an annual average earning growth of 2.2% over the past 10 years.Hedge Fund Gurus that owns SWX: Joel Greenblatt of Gotham Capital, Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies LLC. Mutual Fund and Other Gurus that owns SWX: Mario Gabelli of GAMCO Investors, Kenneth Fisher of Fisher Asset Management, LLC.

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Interest rate risk is the risk that changes in interest rates could adversely affect earnings or cash flows. The primary interest rate risk for the Company is the risk of increasing interest rates on variable-rate obligations. Interest rate risk sensitivity analysis is used to measure interest rate risk by computing estimated changes in cash flows as a result of assumed changes in market interest rates. In Nevada, fluctuations in interest rates on $100 million of variable-rate Industrial Development Revenue Bonds (IDRBs) are tracked and recovered from ratepayers through an interest balancing account which mitigates risk to earnings and cash flows from interest rate fluctuations on these IDRBs between general rate cases. As of December 31, 2010 and 2009, Southwest had $100 million and $192 million, respectively, in variable-rate debt outstanding, excluding the IDRBs noted above. Assuming a constant outstanding balance in variable-rate debt for the next twelve months, a hypothetical one percent change in interest rates would increase or decrease interest expense for the next twelve months by approximately $1 million.

The Company is also exposed to interest rate risk associated with new debt financing needed to fund maturities of long-term debt. Southwest has $200 million of long-term debt maturing in May 2012 and plans to fund that obligation by issuing $200 million of debentures by the maturity date. In connection with the planned debt issuance, the Company, in January 2010, entered into a forward-starting interest rate swap (FSIRS) agreement to hedge the risk of interest rate variability during the period leading up to the planned issuance. The counterparties to the agreement comprise four major banking institutions. The FSIRS has a notional amount of $100 million (with Southwest as the fixed-rate payer at a rate of 4.78%) and has a mandatory termination date on or before March 20, 2012. Southwest designated the FSIRS agreement as a cash flow hedge of forecasted future interest payments.

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