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

Venture Global, Inc. (NYSE:VG) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Monday. Stock investors purchased 23,495 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 100% compared to the average volume of 11,775 call options.

Venture Global Price Performance

Shares of VG traded down $0.31 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $6.95. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 10,055,117 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,830,401. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.00 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.77. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $10.59 and a 200 day moving average price of $12.85. Venture Global has a fifty-two week low of $6.74 and a fifty-two week 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 for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22 by ($0.06). Venture Global had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 29.55%. The company had revenue of $3.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.23 billion. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 259.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Venture Global will post 0.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Venture Global Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a half year 25 dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 19th were paid a dividend of $0.017 per share. This is an increase from Venture Global’s previous half year 25 dividend of $0.02. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 19th. This represents a dividend yield of 50.0%. Venture Global’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.97%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VG has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $17.50 target price on shares of Venture Global in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Scotiabank lowered their target price on Venture Global from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. UBS Group upgraded Venture Global from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $18.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, August 25th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Venture Global in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Tudor Pickering upgraded shares of Venture Global to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Venture Global has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $15.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Fory Musser sold 776,298 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.06, for a total transaction of $6,256,961.88. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Thomas Earl sold 840,076 shares of Venture Global stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.74, for a total transaction of $11,542,644.24. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 3,500,000 shares of company stock worth $36,575,740 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 86.73% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Venture Global

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Venture Global during the first quarter valued at $2,417,000. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new position in Venture Global during the first quarter valued at approximately $775,000. Cetera Investment Advisers acquired a new stake in Venture Global in the first quarter valued at approximately $635,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Venture Global in the first quarter worth approximately $1,623,000. Finally, LPL Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Venture Global during the 1st quarter worth $6,102,000.

Venture Global Company Profile

Venture Global has fundamentally reshaped the development and construction of liquefied natural gas production, establishing us as a rapidly growing company delivering critical LNG to the world. Our innovative and disruptive approach, which is both scalable and repeatable, allows us to bring LNG to a global market years faster and at a lower cost.