Venture Global (NYSE:VG) Shares Up 5.9% – Here’s What Happened

Venture Global, Inc. (NYSE:VG)’s stock price rose 5.9% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $14.95 and last traded at $14.8960. Approximately 17,029,089 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 13% from the average session volume of 19,566,459 shares. The stock had previously closed at $14.06.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VG has been the subject of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Venture Global from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $16.00 to $17.00 in a report on Thursday, June 4th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Venture Global from $10.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $18.00 price target on Venture Global in a report on Thursday, May 14th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on Venture Global in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $14.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Venture Global from $13.00 to $15.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $16.06.

Venture Global Stock Performance

The stock has a 50-day moving average of $12.45 and a 200-day moving average of $11.72. The firm has a market cap of $36.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.58 and a beta of 0.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.40, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.87.

Venture Global (NYSE:VG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 11th. The company reported $0.19 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $4.60 billion during the quarter. Venture Global had a return on equity of 26.90% and a net margin of 16.94%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 58.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Venture Global, Inc. will post 1.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Venture Global Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th were paid a $0.018 dividend. This represents a $0.07 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. Venture Global’s payout ratio is presently 7.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Venture Global

In other Venture Global news, insider Thomas Earl sold 1,000,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $12.44, for a total transaction of $12,440,000.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Fory Musser sold 233,735 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.61, for a total transaction of $2,947,398.35. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 4,348,288 shares of company stock valued at $57,091,496. Corporate insiders own 84.24% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of VG. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Venture Global by 82.7% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,812,233 shares of the company’s stock worth $73,739,000 after purchasing an additional 4,893,707 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG boosted its holdings in shares of Venture Global by 520.8% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 6,279,598 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,827,000 after buying an additional 5,268,053 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Venture Global by 5.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,101,668 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,811,000 after buying an additional 273,331 shares during the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. grew its stake in shares of Venture Global by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 4,963,166 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,849,000 after buying an additional 219,505 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. acquired a new position in Venture Global during the second quarter worth $76,489,000.

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.