Berry (NASDAQ:BRY) Cut to “Hold” at Johnson Rice

Johnson Rice downgraded shares of Berry (NASDAQ:BRY) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Tuesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $4.00 price objective on the energy company’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on BRY. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of Berry from $5.00 to $4.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Berry from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating, According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $4.00.

Berry Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BRY opened at $4.08 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $316.61 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.29 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $3.15 and a 200 day simple moving average of $2.96. Berry has a one year low of $2.11 and a one year high of $5.90.

Berry (NASDAQ:BRY) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The energy company reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.01 by $0.65. The business had revenue of $210.08 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $155.00 million. Berry had a net margin of 0.60% and a return on equity of 5.27%. Research analysts predict that Berry will post 0.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Berry Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 28th. Investors of record on Monday, August 18th were paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 18th. Berry’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 171.43%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Berry

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BRY. Pinnacle Holdings LLC bought a new stake in shares of Berry during the 1st quarter valued at about $27,000. BridgePort Financial Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Berry during the 2nd quarter valued at about $29,000. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Berry during the 1st quarter valued at about $34,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Berry by 130.6% during the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 11,869 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 6,722 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FORA Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Berry during the 1st quarter valued at about $38,000. Institutional investors own 94.88% of the company’s stock.

Berry Company Profile

Berry Petroleum Company, LLC., formerly Berry Petroleum Company, is an independent energy company. The Company is engaged in the production, development, exploitation, and acquisition of oil and natural gas. The Company’s principal reserves and producing properties are located in California (South Midway-Sunset (SMWSS)-Steam Floods, North Midway-Sunset (NMWSS)-Diatomite, NMWSS-New Steam Floods, Texas (Permian and E.