$0.25 Earnings Per Share Expected for Golar LNG Limited (NASDAQ:GLNG) This Quarter

Equities analysts predict that Golar LNG Limited (NASDAQ:GLNG – Get Rating) will report $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the current fiscal quarter, Zacks reports. Three analysts have issued estimates for Golar LNG’s earnings. The lowest EPS estimate is $0.14 and the highest is $0.34. Golar LNG posted earnings of $0.05 per share during the same quarter last year, which indicates a positive year-over-year growth rate of 400%. The firm is expected to report its next earnings report before the market opens on Monday, January 1st.

According to Zacks, analysts expect that Golar LNG will report full-year earnings of $0.96 per share for the current year, with EPS estimates ranging from $0.76 to $1.15. For the next year, analysts forecast that the company will post earnings of $0.79 per share, with EPS estimates ranging from $0.42 to $1.08. Zacks Investment Research’s earnings per share calculations are an average based on a survey of analysts that that provide coverage for Golar LNG.

Golar LNG (NASDAQ:GLNG – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 24th. The shipping company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.10 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $115.39 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $114.01 million. Golar LNG had a return on equity of 0.92% and a net margin of 91.35%.

GLNG has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of Golar LNG from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $17.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 15th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Golar LNG from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, May 13th. TheStreet upgraded shares of Golar LNG from a “d+” rating to a “c-” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 23rd. BTIG Research increased their target price on shares of Golar LNG from $20.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 14th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of Golar LNG from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $14.00 to $19.50 in a research note on Thursday, March 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $23.30.

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in GLNG. Amundi Pioneer Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Golar LNG by 73.1% in the first quarter. Amundi Pioneer Asset Management Inc. now owns 295,900 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $6,241,000 after purchasing an additional 125,000 shares during the period. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. lifted its position in Golar LNG by 141.9% in the third quarter. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. now owns 7,067 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $92,000 after purchasing an additional 4,145 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in Golar LNG by 0.4% in the third quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 5,284,835 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $68,544,000 after purchasing an additional 21,023 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in Golar LNG by 177.4% in the third quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,300,134 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $16,863,000 after buying an additional 831,443 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC purchased a new position in Golar LNG in the third quarter valued at about $324,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.17% of the company’s stock.

NASDAQ:GLNG traded down $0.89 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $23.78. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 30,821 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,490,232. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.39 and a beta of 0.73. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $23.39 and a 200-day moving average of $17.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62. Golar LNG has a 52-week low of $10.01 and a 52-week high of $26.60.

About Golar LNG (Get Rating)

Golar LNG Limited designs, builds, owns, and operates marine infrastructure for the liquefaction and regasification of LNG. It operates through Shipping and FLNG segments. The company engages in the operation and chartering of LNG carriers, Floating Liquefaction Natural Gas Vessel (FLNG), and floating storage regasification units (FSRUs), as well as operates external vessels.

See Also