Cheniere Energy, Inc. (NYSE:LNG) Receives $301.56 Average PT from Analysts

Cheniere Energy, Inc. (NYSE:LNG) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty-one research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, sixteen have issued a buy recommendation and two have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $302.6111.

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on LNG shares. Weiss Ratings upgraded Cheniere Energy from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Friday, August 21st. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $310.00 target price on shares of Cheniere Energy in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Barclays raised their target price on Cheniere Energy from $274.00 to $279.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Cheniere Energy from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Cheniere Energy in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cheniere Energy

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its position in shares of Cheniere Energy by 26,965.4% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 102,611,534 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $24,525,183,000 after buying an additional 102,232,409 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Cheniere Energy by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,219,557 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $4,124,870,000 after acquiring an additional 414,022 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Cheniere Energy by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,174,695 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $1,200,299,000 after acquiring an additional 167,622 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Cheniere Energy in the fourth quarter valued at about $731,774,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in Cheniere Energy by 210.1% in the second quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,444,403 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $584,237,000 after acquiring an additional 1,656,194 shares during the period. 87.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cheniere Energy Price Performance

LNG opened at $283.71 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $258.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $252.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.97, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.87. Cheniere Energy has a 52 week low of $186.20 and a 52 week high of $300.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $58.59 billion, a PE ratio of 21.13 and a beta of -0.01.

Cheniere Energy (NYSE:LNG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The energy company reported $3.02 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.11 by ($0.09). Cheniere Energy had a net margin of 13.57% and a return on equity of 29.80%. The business had revenue of $5.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.92 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $7.30 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 23.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Cheniere Energy will post 16.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Cheniere Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 18th. Investors of record on Monday, August 10th were issued a dividend of $0.555 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 10th. This represents a $2.22 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. Cheniere Energy’s payout ratio is currently 16.53%.

About Cheniere Energy

Cheniere Energy, Inc is a U.S.-based energy company that develops, owns and operates liquefied natural gas (LNG) infrastructure and markets LNG to global customers. The company’s core activities include natural gas liquefaction, long‑term and short‑term LNG sales and marketing, and the associated midstream services required to move gas from production basins to international markets. Cheniere focuses on converting domestic natural gas into LNG for export, providing a bridge between North American supply and overseas demand.

Cheniere’s principal operating assets are large-scale LNG export terminals located on the U.S.