Crescent Energy (NYSE:CRGY) Shares Gap Up on Analyst Upgrade

Crescent Energy Company (NYSE:CRGY) shares gapped up before the market opened on Friday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded the stock from a neutral rating to an overweight rating. The stock had previously closed at $12.25, but opened at $12.63. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now has a $19.00 price target on the stock. Crescent Energy shares last traded at $12.6390, with a volume of 2,549,047 shares.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on CRGY. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $9.00 price target on shares of Crescent Energy in a research note on Sunday, January 25th. Evercore initiated coverage on shares of Crescent Energy in a research note on Tuesday, December 16th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $13.00 price objective for the company. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Crescent Energy from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Crescent Energy from $14.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Crescent Energy from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $13.78.

Crescent Energy News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Crescent Energy this week:

• Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan upgraded CRGY from “neutral” to “overweight” and set a $19.00 price target (roughly +50% upside vs recent levels), which is a major catalyst for buying interest. Read More. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Unusual options activity: traders bought 4,578 call options (up 128% vs average daily call volume), signaling speculative or hedged bullish bets that can amplify upside momentum in the underlying shares.
• Positive Sentiment: Broker optimism: Wells Fargo publicly forecasted strong price appreciation for CRGY, and brokerages collectively show a consensus “Moderate Buy,” adding institutional credibility to the rally. Read More. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Technical/market action: reports note CRGY hit a new 52-week high after the analyst upgrade, which can attract momentum and ETF/quant flows that buy stocks breaking to new highs. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Capital-structure item: a recent ESOP shelf filing has drawn attention — this could be part of employee-compensation planning or a mechanism to issue equity in the future. Impact depends on whether shares are issued (possible dilution) or used minimally; for now it’s informational. Read More.

Institutional Trading of Crescent Energy

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CRGY. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Crescent Energy by 34.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,292,081 shares of the company’s stock valued at $228,981,000 after acquiring an additional 7,015,982 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in Crescent Energy by 28.4% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 17,928,597 shares of the company’s stock worth $154,186,000 after acquiring an additional 3,960,998 shares during the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. raised its position in Crescent Energy by 775.1% in the fourth quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 3,303,260 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,714,000 after purchasing an additional 2,925,780 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in Crescent Energy by 27.6% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 12,808,605 shares of the company’s stock valued at $107,464,000 after purchasing an additional 2,767,096 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Crescent Energy by 77.8% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,105,558 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,836,000 after purchasing an additional 2,234,324 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 52.11% of the company’s stock.

Crescent Energy Trading Up 3.3%

The firm has a market cap of $4.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.34 and a beta of 1.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a current ratio of 1.48. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $10.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $9.30.

Crescent Energy (NYSE:CRGY) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The company reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.19. Crescent Energy had a return on equity of 8.36% and a net margin of 3.71%.The firm had revenue of $865.05 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $884.64 million. On average, research analysts expect that Crescent Energy Company will post 0.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Crescent Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 11th will be given a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 11th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.8%. Crescent Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 92.31%.

Crescent Energy Company Profile

Crescent Energy Co (NYSE: CRGY) is an independent exploration and production company focused on the acquisition, development and production of oil and natural gas resources in North America. Headquartered in Oklahoma City, the company’s core business activities include the identification and appraisal of prospective acreage, the design and execution of drilling and completion programs, and the ongoing operation and optimization of producing wells. Crescent Energy’s integrated approach emphasizes capital efficiency, reservoir quality and operational reliability to support sustainable cash flow generation over the commodity cycle.

Crescent Energy’s operations are concentrated in the Permian Basin, with a particular focus on the Delaware Basin’s stacked pay intervals.