D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. Purchases Shares of 401,927 Berry Co. (NASDAQ:BRY)

D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. purchased a new stake in Berry Co. (NASDAQ:BRY) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 401,927 shares of the energy company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,660,000. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. owned approximately 0.52% of Berry at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of BRY. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Berry by 1.8% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 269,502 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $1,385,000 after buying an additional 4,686 shares during the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC grew its holdings in shares of Berry by 29.5% during the fourth quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 102,185 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $422,000 after buying an additional 23,266 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its holdings in shares of Berry by 54.2% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 41,475 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $171,000 after buying an additional 14,579 shares during the last quarter. R Squared Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Berry during the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Finally, EMC Capital Management grew its holdings in shares of Berry by 149.7% during the fourth quarter. EMC Capital Management now owns 13,780 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $57,000 after buying an additional 8,261 shares during the last quarter. 94.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Johnson Rice raised Berry from an “accumulate” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday.

Berry Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BRY opened at $2.61 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $2.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $3.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $202.53 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80. Berry Co. has a 12 month low of $2.11 and a 12 month high of $7.22.

Berry (NASDAQ:BRY) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The energy company reported $0.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $182.65 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $177.00 million. Berry had a return on equity of 6.50% and a net margin of 9.40%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Berry Co. will post 0.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Berry Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 19th. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.60%. Berry’s payout ratio is -25.53%.

Berry Profile

Berry Petroleum Company, LLC., formerly Berry Petroleum Company, is an independent energy company. The Company is engaged in the production, development, exploitation, and acquisition of oil and natural gas. The Company’s principal reserves and producing properties are located in California (South Midway-Sunset (SMWSS)-Steam Floods, North Midway-Sunset (NMWSS)-Diatomite, NMWSS-New Steam Floods, Texas (Permian and E.