Analysts Set Venture Global, Inc. (NYSE:VG) Target Price at $15.77

Venture Global, Inc. (NYSE:VG) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the seventeen brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $15.7667.

VG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Venture Global from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, March 22nd. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Venture Global from $13.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 20th. Citigroup increased their price target on Venture Global from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on Venture Global from $14.00 to $16.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 17th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Venture Global from $11.00 to $13.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Venture Global news, VP Fory Musser sold 1,000,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.90, for a total value of $10,900,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Thomas Earl sold 1,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.83, for a total transaction of $11,830,000.00. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 6,094,446 shares of company stock valued at $84,601,768 in the last 90 days. 86.73% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Venture Global

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of VG. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 13,620,863 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG boosted its holdings in shares of Venture Global by 520.8% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 6,279,598 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,827,000 after purchasing an additional 5,268,053 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Venture Global during the second quarter valued at about $76,489,000. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Venture Global by 82.7% in the fourth 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. Finally, Millennium Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Venture Global by 258.1% in the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 3,248,477 shares of the company’s stock worth $22,155,000 after purchasing an additional 2,341,253 shares during the last quarter.

Venture Global Trading Up 5.0%

Venture Global stock opened at $12.96 on Friday. Venture Global has a 12-month low of $5.72 and a 12-month high of $19.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.07, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.84. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $12.73 and a 200 day moving average of $9.80. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.24.

Venture Global (NYSE:VG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 2nd. The company reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $4.45 billion for the quarter. Venture Global had a net margin of 18.38% and a return on equity of 27.96%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 191.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Venture Global will post 1.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Venture Global Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Investors of record on Monday, March 16th were paid a dividend of $0.018 per share. This is a boost from Venture Global’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.02. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 16th. This represents a $0.07 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. Venture Global’s dividend payout ratio is 8.14%.

About Venture Global

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.