Black Stone Minerals (NYSE:BSM) Shares Gap Down – Should You Sell?

Black Stone Minerals, L.P. (NYSE:BSM) gapped down prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $15.17, but opened at $14.70. Black Stone Minerals shares last traded at $14.7410, with a volume of 20,207 shares changing hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on BSM. Zacks Research raised shares of Black Stone Minerals from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Black Stone Minerals from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 20th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on Black Stone Minerals in a report on Friday, May 29th. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $16.00 target price on the stock. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Black Stone Minerals has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $15.00.

Black Stone Minerals Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $3.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.21 and a beta of 0.05. The company has a quick ratio of 3.76, a current ratio of 3.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $14.62 and its 200-day moving average price is $14.37.

Black Stone Minerals (NYSE:BSM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.24. Black Stone Minerals had a net margin of 61.72% and a return on equity of 41.48%. The company had revenue of $148.97 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $108.28 million. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Black Stone Minerals, L.P. will post 0.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Black Stone Minerals Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 6th were issued a $0.32 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 6th. This is a positive change from Black Stone Minerals’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.7%. Black Stone Minerals’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 105.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director James Whitehead sold 2,127,105 shares of Black Stone Minerals stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.21, for a total transaction of $28,099,057.05. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 17.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Black Stone Minerals

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BSM. IKE Capital LLC increased its position in Black Stone Minerals by 6.2% during the 2nd quarter. IKE Capital LLC now owns 17,000 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $237,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Black Stone Minerals by 72.8% in the second quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 24,605 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $344,000 after buying an additional 10,366 shares during the last quarter. Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Black Stone Minerals by 50.0% in the second quarter. Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC now owns 15,000 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $210,000 after purchasing an additional 5,000 shares in the last quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC bought a new position in Black Stone Minerals during the second quarter worth $31,000. Finally, Doliver Advisors LP boosted its position in Black Stone Minerals by 30.4% during the 2nd quarter. Doliver Advisors LP now owns 59,827 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $836,000 after purchasing an additional 13,950 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 14.49% of the company’s stock.

Black Stone Minerals Company Profile

Black Stone Minerals, L.P. is a publicly traded master limited partnership that owns oil and natural gas mineral and royalty interests in the United States. The company generally does not operate wells directly; instead, it leases its mineral interests to exploration and production companies and receives royalty payments from the oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids produced from those properties.

Black Stone Minerals’ assets are located across numerous U.S. oil and gas regions, with significant exposure to areas including the Permian Basin, Haynesville Basin and Eagle Ford shale.