Venture Global Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:VG)

Venture Global, Inc. (NYSE:VG) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Traders bought 22,044 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 57% compared to the typical volume of 14,020 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Thomas Earl sold 1,000,000 shares of Venture Global stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.89, for a total transaction of $6,890,000.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Fory Musser sold 42,901 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.80, for a total transaction of $334,627.80. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 3,000,000 shares of company stock worth $22,904,729. 86.73% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Venture Global

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of VG. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Venture Global by 147.4% in the 3rd 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 during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. bought a new stake in Venture Global in the second quarter worth approximately $76,489,000. Mather Group LLC. lifted its stake in Venture Global by 171.9% in the third quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 460,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,527,000 after buying an additional 1,100,000 shares during the period. WINTON GROUP Ltd bought a new position in shares of Venture Global during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $13,632,000. Finally, Alps Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Venture Global during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $13,413,000.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Venture Global from $16.00 to $10.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 26th. Zacks Research cut Venture Global from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Friday, November 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $17.50 price objective on shares of Venture Global in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Mizuho reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $12.00 target price (down from $17.00) on shares of Venture Global in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Finally, Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of Venture Global from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 13th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $14.25.

Venture Global Stock Performance

Shares of VG stock opened at $7.91 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.36 billion and a PE ratio of 10.14. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $7.08 and its 200 day simple moving average is $11.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.77. Venture Global has a one year low of $5.72 and a one year high of $25.50.

Venture Global (NYSE:VG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 10th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.22 by ($0.06). Venture Global had a return on equity of 29.55% and a net margin of 21.99%.The firm had revenue of $3.33 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.23 billion. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 259.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Venture Global will post 0.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Venture Global Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Monday, December 15th were issued a $0.017 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 15th. This represents a $0.07 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. Venture Global’s payout ratio is presently 7.69%.

Venture Global Company Profile

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.