Par Pacific (NYSE:PARR) Shares Up 4.5% on Analyst Upgrade

Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PARR)’s stock price shot up 4.5% during trading on Wednesday after Mizuho raised their price target on the stock from $49.00 to $58.00. Mizuho currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Par Pacific traded as high as $54.97 and last traded at $55.3050. 64,138 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 95% from the average session volume of 1,220,442 shares. The stock had previously closed at $52.94.

A number of other research firms have also recently issued reports on PARR. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Par Pacific from $44.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Par Pacific from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Par Pacific in a report on Monday, December 29th. Zacks Research downgraded Par Pacific from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 16th. Finally, Piper Sandler set a $57.00 price objective on Par Pacific in a research note on Monday, January 12th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Par Pacific presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $51.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Par Pacific

In related news, CEO William Monteleone sold 108,948 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.06, for a total value of $5,889,728.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 457,167 shares in the company, valued at $24,714,448.02. The trade was a 19.24% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 4.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Par Pacific

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in Par Pacific during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,149,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Par Pacific by 38.5% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 354,439 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,554,000 after buying an additional 98,524 shares during the period. Creative Planning grew its position in shares of Par Pacific by 43.8% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 50,438 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,338,000 after buying an additional 15,362 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in shares of Par Pacific by 89.9% during the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,438,677 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,168,000 after buying an additional 681,190 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in Par Pacific by 24.9% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 705,832 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,001,000 after buying an additional 140,514 shares during the period. 92.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Par Pacific Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $2.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.59 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The company’s fifty day moving average is $41.83 and its two-hundred day moving average is $39.67.

Par Pacific (NYSE:PARR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 24th. The company reported $1.17 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.21 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. Par Pacific had a return on equity of 30.19% and a net margin of 4.95%.Par Pacific’s revenue was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.79) EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. will post 0.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Par Pacific

Par Pacific Holdings, Inc (NYSE: PARR) is a diversified downstream energy company engaged in the refining, marketing and logistics of petroleum products. Through its subsidiaries, Par Pacific operates the Par Hawaii Refinery on the island of Oʻahu, which processes crude oil into transportation fuels such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, as well as asphalt, petroleum coke and sulfur. In the Rocky Mountain region, the company owns and operates the Salt Lake City Refinery in Utah and associated logistics infrastructure, including pipelines and storage terminals, to support both crude supply and product distribution.

In marketing its refined products, Par Pacific maintains a network of branded and unbranded wholesale accounts across Hawaii and the U.S.