Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Invests $2.03 Million in Southwestern Energy (NYSE:SWN)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in Southwestern Energy (NYSE:SWN) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 309,400 shares of the energy company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,027,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of SWN. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Southwestern Energy by 4,550.6% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 21,735,368 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $108,678,000 after purchasing an additional 21,268,002 shares during the period. Kimmeridge Energy Management Company LLC purchased a new stake in Southwestern Energy in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $120,352,000. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Southwestern Energy by 269.1% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 13,958,070 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $100,079,000 after purchasing an additional 10,175,992 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Southwestern Energy by 21.5% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 55,933,972 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $401,047,000 after purchasing an additional 9,882,224 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its holdings in Southwestern Energy by 61.6% in the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 25,513,925 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $127,570,000 after purchasing an additional 9,729,900 shares during the period. 86.97% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $6.60 price objective (down from $8.50) on shares of Southwestern Energy in a research note on Tuesday, January 23rd. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Southwestern Energy from $8.00 to $8.24 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 12th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of Southwestern Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Scotiabank downgraded shares of Southwestern Energy from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $9.00 to $9.50 in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Southwestern Energy from $6.00 to $6.25 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $8.11.

Southwestern Energy Stock Performance

NYSE SWN opened at $7.27 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $7.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $6.80. Southwestern Energy has a 52 week low of $4.57 and a 52 week high of $7.69. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The stock has a market cap of $8.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.16 and a beta of 1.12.

Southwestern Energy (NYSE:SWN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The energy company reported $0.17 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.13 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.29 billion. Southwestern Energy had a net margin of 23.87% and a return on equity of 11.74%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 49.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.26 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Southwestern Energy will post 0.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southwestern Energy Profile

Southwestern Energy Company, an independent energy company, engages in the exploration, development, and production of natural gas, oil, and natural gas liquids (NGLs) in the United States. It operates through two segments, Exploration and Production, and Marketing. The company focuses on the development of unconventional natural gas and oil reservoirs located in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, and Louisiana.