LPL Financial LLC Buys 21,440 Shares of Range Resources Co. (NYSE:RRC)

LPL Financial LLC raised its position in Range Resources Co. (NYSE:RRC) by 23.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 113,800 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after buying an additional 21,440 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC’s holdings in Range Resources were worth $4,095,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in RRC. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new position in Range Resources in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,795,000. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Range Resources by 7.9% in the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 361,966 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $13,024,000 after purchasing an additional 26,526 shares during the last quarter. Xponance Inc. grew its position in shares of Range Resources by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 27,186 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $978,000 after buying an additional 1,202 shares during the period. Boston Partners raised its stake in shares of Range Resources by 4.9% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 7,976,052 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $287,078,000 after buying an additional 371,777 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NFC Investments LLC acquired a new position in Range Resources in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $5,379,000. 98.93% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

RRC has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Range Resources from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. UBS Group cut their target price on Range Resources from $41.00 to $36.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Morgan Stanley upgraded Range Resources from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $40.00 to $49.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Roth Mkm raised shares of Range Resources from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $41.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Range Resources from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $41.71.

Range Resources Price Performance

Range Resources stock opened at $34.60 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.47, a PEG ratio of 5.11 and a beta of 1.73. The company has a current ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. Range Resources Co. has a 12 month low of $27.29 and a 12 month high of $41.95. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $37.89 and its 200-day moving average is $35.56.

Range Resources (NYSE:RRC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.13. Range Resources had a return on equity of 13.69% and a net margin of 17.63%. The firm had revenue of $626.42 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $676.53 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.63 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Range Resources Co. will post 2.02 EPS for the current year.

Range Resources Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a $0.09 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.04%. This is an increase from Range Resources’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. Range Resources’s payout ratio is currently 32.73%.

Range Resources Profile

Range Resources Corporation operates as an independent natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs), crude oil, and condensate company in the United States. The company engages in the exploration, development, and acquisition of natural gas and crude oil properties located in the Appalachian region. It sells natural gas to utilities, marketing and midstream companies, and industrial users; NGLs to petrochemical end users, marketers/traders, and natural gas processors; and oil and condensate to crude oil processors, transporters, and refining and marketing companies.