Vermilion Energy (TSE:VET) Shares Down 13.8% After Analyst Downgrade

Vermilion Energy Inc. (TSE:VET) (NYSE:VET) traded down 13.8% on Thursday after CIBC lowered their price target on the stock from C$17.00 to C$14.00. The company traded as low as C$7.83 and last traded at C$8.01. 1,567,002 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 102% from the average session volume of 776,429 shares. The stock had previously closed at C$9.29.

VET has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Vermilion Energy from C$17.00 to C$16.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, December 30th. National Bankshares increased their price target on Vermilion Energy from C$18.00 to C$19.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Desjardins cut Vermilion Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from C$19.00 to C$14.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. ATB Capital cut their target price on Vermilion Energy from C$20.00 to C$17.50 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 30th. Finally, Atb Cap Markets cut Vermilion Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of C$16.75.

Vermilion Energy Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 35.61, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 0.40. The firm has a market capitalization of C$1.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.51, a PEG ratio of -0.02 and a beta of 2.60. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is C$11.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$12.98.

Vermilion Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.49%. This is a positive change from Vermilion Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Vermilion Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently -9.03%.

About Vermilion Energy

Vermilion Energy Inc is an international oil and gas producing company. It engages in full-cycle exploration and production programs that focus on the acquisition, exploration, development, and optimization of producing properties in North America, Europe, and Australia. The majority of Vermilion’s revenue has derived from the production and sale of petroleum and natural gas.