Venture Global, Inc. (NYSE:VG) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Venture Global, Inc. (NYSE:VG) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seventeen ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $16.2667.

Several equities analysts have recently commented on VG shares. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Venture Global from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Venture Global from $19.00 to $16.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Venture Global from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Venture Global from $14.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 17th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Venture Global from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th.

Venture Global Price Performance

VG stock opened at $14.17 on Thursday. Venture Global has a one year low of $5.72 and a one year high of $19.50. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $13.54 and its 200-day moving average price is $10.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.40, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.87. The company has a market capitalization of $34.81 billion, a PE ratio of 15.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 0.44.

Venture Global (NYSE:VG) last released 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. Venture Global had a net margin of 16.94% and a return on equity of 26.90%. The firm had revenue of $4.60 billion for the quarter. Venture Global’s revenue was up 58.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Venture Global will post 1.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Venture Global Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Investors of record on Monday, March 16th were paid a dividend of $0.018 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 16th. This is a positive change from Venture Global’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.02. This represents a $0.07 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. Venture Global’s payout ratio is currently 7.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Venture Global

In related news, CAO Sarah Blake sold 200,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.00, for a total transaction of $3,200,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Jonathan W. Thayer sold 111,111 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.89, for a total transaction of $1,321,109.79. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 8,094,446 shares of company stock worth $110,781,768 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 84.24% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Venture Global

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of VG. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Venture Global by 147.4% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,862,372 shares of the company’s stock valued at $324,417,000 after purchasing an additional 13,620,863 shares in the last quarter. UBS Group AG raised its stake in Venture Global by 520.8% during the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 6,279,598 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,827,000 after purchasing an additional 5,268,053 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. purchased a new stake in Venture Global during the second quarter valued at $76,489,000. State Street Corp raised its stake in Venture Global by 82.7% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC raised its stake in Venture Global by 258.1% during the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 3,248,477 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,155,000 after purchasing an additional 2,341,253 shares in the last quarter.

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.