Venture Global (NYSE:VG) Shares Up 5.9% – Here’s What Happened

Venture Global, Inc. (NYSE:VG) shares traded up 5.9% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $14.95 and last traded at $14.8960. 17,029,089 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 13% from the average session volume of 19,566,459 shares. The stock had previously closed at $14.06.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on VG shares. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on shares of Venture Global in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $14.00 target price for the company. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Venture Global from $13.00 to $15.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Venture Global from $14.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 17th. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Venture Global from $13.00 to $15.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup raised Venture Global from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $12.00 to $17.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Venture Global currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $16.06.

Venture Global Price Performance

The company’s 50-day moving average price is $12.53 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $11.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.40, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The company has a market capitalization of $37.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 0.33.

Venture Global (NYSE:VG) last announced its earnings results on Monday, May 11th. The company reported $0.19 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.12 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $4.60 billion during the quarter. Venture Global had a net margin of 16.94% and a return on equity of 26.90%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 58.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Venture Global, Inc. will post 1.46 EPS for the current year.

Venture Global Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a dividend of $0.018 per share. This represents a $0.07 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. Venture Global’s payout ratio is currently 7.78%.

Insider Transactions at Venture Global

In other news, VP Fory Musser sold 2,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.09, for a total transaction of $26,180,000.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Brian Cothran sold 473,533 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.81, for a total value of $7,013,023.73. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 4,348,288 shares of company stock worth $57,091,496 over the last three months. Company insiders own 84.24% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Venture Global

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Venture Global by 82.7% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,812,233 shares of the company’s stock valued at $73,739,000 after purchasing an additional 4,893,707 shares during the period. UBS Group AG increased its holdings in shares of Venture Global by 520.8% during the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 6,279,598 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,827,000 after purchasing an additional 5,268,053 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Venture Global by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,101,668 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,811,000 after purchasing an additional 273,331 shares during the period. Cohen & Steers Inc. raised its position in shares of Venture Global by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 4,963,166 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,849,000 after buying an additional 219,505 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Venture Global in the second quarter valued at approximately $76,489,000.

About Venture Global

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.