NextDecade Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:NEXT)

NextDecade Corporation (NASDAQ:NEXT) saw some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Traders acquired 17,494 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 203% compared to the typical volume of 5,776 call options.

Institutional Trading of NextDecade

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of NEXT. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of NextDecade by 0.5% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,378,992 shares of the company’s stock valued at $70,473,000 after buying an additional 52,803 shares in the last quarter. Man Investment Partners US LP purchased a new position in NextDecade during the 4th quarter valued at about $48,879,000. Wolf Hill Capital Management LP raised its position in NextDecade by 25.9% during the fourth quarter. Wolf Hill Capital Management LP now owns 3,698,857 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,493,000 after acquiring an additional 761,299 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NextDecade by 12.3% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,541,633 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,559,000 after purchasing an additional 386,613 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in shares of NextDecade by 16.7% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,102,352 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,642,000 after purchasing an additional 444,518 shares in the last quarter. 66.74% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on NextDecade from $10.00 to $7.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Capital One Financial initiated coverage on shares of NextDecade in a research note on Friday, February 6th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $7.00 price target on the stock. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of NextDecade in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, TD Cowen cut their target price on NextDecade from $7.00 to $6.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $6.67.

NextDecade Price Performance

Shares of NEXT traded up $0.48 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $6.46. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,824,634 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,055,624. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $5.32 and a 200 day simple moving average of $6.04. NextDecade has a 1-year low of $4.75 and a 1-year high of $12.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.71 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.51 and a beta of 2.02. The company has a current ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.70.

NextDecade (NASDAQ:NEXT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 27th. The company reported ($0.88) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.68) by ($0.20). Analysts predict that NextDecade will post -0.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About NextDecade

NextDecade Corporation is a Houston‐based liquefied natural gas (LNG) and decarbonization company focused on the development, engineering, construction and operation of large‐scale LNG export facilities. The company’s core mission is to deliver cleaner energy solutions to global customers while integrating carbon capture and sequestration technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. NextDecade’s projects are designed to leverage abundant U.S. natural gas supplies to meet growing worldwide demand for low‐carbon fuel.

NextDecade’s flagship project, Rio Grande LNG, is located at the Port of Brownsville in southern Texas.