Range Resources (NYSE:RRC) Raised to “Hold” at Zacks Research

Range Resources (NYSE:RRC) was upgraded by research analysts at Zacks Research from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on the company. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Range Resources in a report on Thursday, August 13th. Stephens increased their target price on shares of Range Resources from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Raymond James Financial set a $45.00 price target on Range Resources in a report on Monday, July 27th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Range Resources from $38.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Freedom Capital upgraded shares of Range Resources from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $43.75.

Range Resources Stock Performance

Shares of Range Resources stock opened at $40.75 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $38.05 and a 200-day moving average of $40.06. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. Range Resources has a 1-year low of $32.68 and a 1-year high of $48.31. The company has a market cap of $9.52 billion, a PE ratio of 11.26 and a beta of 0.42.

Range Resources (NYSE:RRC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 21st. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.66 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $759.58 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $744.78 million. Range Resources had a return on equity of 18.63% and a net margin of 25.04%.Range Resources’s revenue was down 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.66 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Range Resources will post 3.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Range Resources news, Director Reginal Spiller sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.00, for a total transaction of $140,000.00. Following the sale, the director owned 13,421 shares in the company, valued at $536,840. This represents a 20.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in RRC. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Range Resources in the 2nd quarter valued at about $868,085,000. Boston Partners grew its holdings in shares of Range Resources by 59.3% during the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 11,817,550 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $445,196,000 after purchasing an additional 4,398,042 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Range Resources by 517.6% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,440,277 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $91,852,000 after purchasing an additional 2,045,165 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in shares of Range Resources in the second quarter worth approximately $67,470,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new stake in Range Resources in the second quarter valued at approximately $58,524,000. 98.93% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Range Resources

Range Resources Corporation, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, is an independent energy company engaged in the exploration, development and production of natural gas, oil and natural gas liquids. The company focuses its core operations on the Appalachian Basin, with a significant presence in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale. Through its drilling and completion activities, Range Resources seeks to optimize production efficiency while maintaining a disciplined approach to capital allocation and cost management.

The company’s technical expertise centers on advanced horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques, which it applies to unlock unconventional resources.