Pinnacle Associates Ltd. Reduces Stock Holdings in Golar LNG Limited $GLNG

Pinnacle Associates Ltd. lowered its stake in shares of Golar LNG Limited (NASDAQ:GLNG) by 3.2% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,001,465 shares of the shipping company’s stock after selling 32,871 shares during the period. Pinnacle Associates Ltd.’s holdings in Golar LNG were worth $37,265,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Rubric Capital Management LP increased its position in shares of Golar LNG by 2.3% during the second quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP now owns 9,178,978 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $378,082,000 after buying an additional 203,829 shares during the period. Cartenna Capital LP increased its position in shares of Golar LNG by 13.2% during the third quarter. Cartenna Capital LP now owns 1,925,000 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $77,789,000 after buying an additional 225,000 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Golar LNG by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,914,741 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $78,868,000 after purchasing an additional 26,838 shares during the period. Appian Way Asset Management LP lifted its stake in shares of Golar LNG by 34.8% in the 3rd quarter. Appian Way Asset Management LP now owns 1,633,582 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $66,013,000 after purchasing an additional 421,375 shares during the period. Finally, Danske Bank A S purchased a new position in shares of Golar LNG in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $56,574,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on GLNG. Wall Street Zen cut Golar LNG from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 25th. BTIG Research raised their target price on Golar LNG from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 25th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group set a $56.00 target price on shares of Golar LNG in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $51.13.

Golar LNG Price Performance

GLNG stock opened at $56.68 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 2.55 and a current ratio of 2.55. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $52.06 and a 200-day moving average price of $43.99. Golar LNG Limited has a 52-week low of $35.02 and a 52-week high of $57.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 88.56 and a beta of 0.06.

Golar LNG (NASDAQ:GLNG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Saturday, February 14th. The shipping company reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter. Golar LNG had a return on equity of 6.24% and a net margin of 16.69%.The firm had revenue of $132.81 million for the quarter. Equities research analysts forecast that Golar LNG Limited will post 0.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Golar LNG Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 9th. Golar LNG’s dividend payout ratio is currently 156.25%.

About Golar LNG

Golar LNG Ltd. is a leading owner and operator of liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers and floating infrastructure. The company specializes in the transportation of LNG on long-term and spot charters for major energy firms around the world. In addition to shipping, Golar LNG has broadened its services to include project development and the conversion of existing carriers into Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) and Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) vessels.

Since pioneering the first purpose-built FLNG conversion project, Golar LNG has been at the forefront of offshore gas monetization.