Par Pacific (NYSE:PARR) Lowered to “Buy” Rating by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Par Pacific (NYSE:PARR) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Saturday morning.

Several other equities analysts have also issued reports on the company. Zacks Research upgraded Par Pacific from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Par Pacific in a research note on Friday, March 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Par Pacific from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $53.00 to $77.00 in a research note on Friday, April 10th. Raymond James Financial boosted their price target on Par Pacific from $50.00 to $77.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 25th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Par Pacific from $40.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Par Pacific has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $67.00.

Par Pacific Trading Up 3.7%

Shares of PARR opened at $64.53 on Friday. Par Pacific has a 12-month low of $17.48 and a 12-month high of $70.39. The company has a quick ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.20 and a beta of 0.91. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $58.30 and its 200 day moving average price is $46.44.

Par Pacific (NYSE:PARR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The company reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.00 by ($0.22). Par Pacific had a net margin of 6.02% and a return on equity of 34.38%. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.78 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.94) earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Par Pacific will post 14.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Par Pacific

In other news, CEO William Monteleone sold 108,948 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.06, for a total value of $5,889,728.88. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 457,167 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,714,448.02. This represents a 19.24% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Par Pacific

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of PARR. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Par Pacific by 30.9% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,044,612 shares of the company’s stock valued at $178,680,000 after purchasing an additional 1,190,088 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in shares of Par Pacific by 7,787.1% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 563,930 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,816,000 after purchasing an additional 556,780 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in Par Pacific by 42.8% during the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,522,392 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,923,000 after acquiring an additional 456,473 shares during the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its position in Par Pacific by 810.8% during the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 359,834 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,645,000 after acquiring an additional 320,326 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its position in Par Pacific by 22.1% during the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,756,161 shares of the company’s stock worth $62,203,000 after acquiring an additional 317,484 shares during the last quarter. 92.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Par Pacific

Par Pacific Holdings, Inc (NYSE: PARR) is a diversified downstream energy company engaged in the refining, marketing and logistics of petroleum products. Through its subsidiaries, Par Pacific operates the Par Hawaii Refinery on the island of Oʻahu, which processes crude oil into transportation fuels such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, as well as asphalt, petroleum coke and sulfur. In the Rocky Mountain region, the company owns and operates the Salt Lake City Refinery in Utah and associated logistics infrastructure, including pipelines and storage terminals, to support both crude supply and product distribution.

In marketing its refined products, Par Pacific maintains a network of branded and unbranded wholesale accounts across Hawaii and the U.S.