Venture Global (NYSE:VG) Shares Gap Up – What’s Next?

Shares of Venture Global, Inc. (NYSE:VG) gapped up before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $14.68, but opened at $15.75. Venture Global shares last traded at $15.23, with a volume of 5,152,869 shares.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on VG shares. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Venture Global from $9.00 to $11.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Venture Global from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 25th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Venture Global from $10.00 to $14.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 25th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Venture Global from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $8.00 to $22.00 in a report on Monday, March 23rd. Finally, Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $13.00 target price on shares of Venture Global in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Venture Global currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $15.70.

Venture Global Stock Performance

The business’s fifty day moving average price is $11.57 and its 200-day moving average price is $9.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.24, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.40 billion, a PE ratio of 17.28, a P/E/G ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 5.70.

Venture Global (NYSE:VG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, March 2nd. The company reported $0.41 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $4.45 billion during 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, equities research analysts expect that Venture Global, Inc. will post 0.52 EPS for the current year.

Venture Global Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 16th were given a dividend of $0.018 per share. This is an increase from Venture Global’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.02. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 16th. This represents a $0.07 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. Venture Global’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.14%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Venture Global news, CAO Sarah Blake sold 200,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.00, for a total value of $3,200,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP Fory Musser sold 1,000,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.90, for a total value of $10,900,000.00. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 5,872,223 shares of company stock worth $82,002,870. 86.73% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Venture Global

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in VG. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Venture Global by 147.4% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,862,372 shares of the company’s stock worth $324,417,000 after acquiring an additional 13,620,863 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Venture Global by 82.7% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,812,233 shares of the company’s stock valued at $73,739,000 after acquiring an additional 4,893,707 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG increased its stake in Venture Global by 520.8% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 6,279,598 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,827,000 after acquiring an additional 5,268,053 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Venture Global by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,101,668 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,811,000 after purchasing an additional 273,331 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cohen & Steers Inc. lifted its stake in Venture Global by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 4,963,166 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,849,000 after purchasing an additional 219,505 shares during the last quarter.

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.