Venture Global (NYSE:VG) Shares Gap Down After Analyst Downgrade

Venture Global, Inc. (NYSE:VG) gapped down prior to trading on Tuesday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on the stock from $19.00 to $16.00. The stock had previously closed at $12.75, but opened at $12.37. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Venture Global shares last traded at $12.5260, with a volume of 3,422,924 shares.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on VG. Wall Street Zen raised Venture Global from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, March 22nd. New Street Research set a $15.00 price target on Venture Global in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Venture Global from $15.00 to $18.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 24th. UBS Group raised their price target on Venture Global from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 25th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Venture Global from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Venture Global has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $15.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Venture Global news, insider Thomas Earl sold 1,000,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.83, for a total transaction of $11,830,000.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Jonathan W. Thayer sold 2,611,111 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.08, for a total value of $41,986,664.88. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 5,872,223 shares of company stock worth $82,002,870. Insiders own 86.73% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Venture Global by 147.4% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,862,372 shares of the company’s stock worth $324,417,000 after acquiring an additional 13,620,863 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Venture Global by 82.7% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,812,233 shares of the company’s stock worth $73,739,000 after buying an additional 4,893,707 shares in the last quarter. UBS Group AG raised its stake in shares of Venture Global by 520.8% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 6,279,598 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,827,000 after buying an additional 5,268,053 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Venture Global by 5.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,101,668 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,811,000 after buying an additional 273,331 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cohen & Steers Inc. raised its stake in shares of Venture Global by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 4,963,166 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,849,000 after buying an additional 219,505 shares in the last quarter.

Venture Global Stock Down 2.8%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.24, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.93. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $12.45 and a 200 day moving average price of $9.85. The company has a market cap of $29.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.14, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.84.

Venture Global (NYSE:VG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, March 2nd. The company reported $0.41 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.06. Venture Global had a return on equity of 27.96% and a net margin of 18.38%.The company had revenue of $4.45 billion for the quarter. Venture Global’s revenue was up 191.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Venture Global, Inc. will post 0.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Venture Global Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 16th were paid a $0.018 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 16th. This represents a $0.07 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. This is a boost from Venture Global’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.02. Venture Global’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.14%.

Venture Global Company Profile

Venture Global (NYSE: VG) is a Houston-based energy company that develops, constructs and operates large-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities in the United States. The company focuses on converting domestically produced natural gas into LNG for shipment to international markets, positioning itself as a supplier of pipeline-quality gas in vessel-ready form for global customers.

Venture Global’s core activities include site development, engineering and construction of liquefaction and export terminals, commissioning and ongoing operations of those facilities, and commercial marketing of LNG under both long-term and short-term contracts.