Investors Purchase Large Volume of Venture Global Call Options (NYSE:VG)

Venture Global, Inc. (NYSE:VG) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors bought 54,698 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 85% compared to the average volume of 29,523 call options.

Venture Global Stock Down 9.7%

Shares of VG opened at $14.44 on Thursday. Venture Global has a 52 week low of $5.72 and a 52 week high of $19.50. The firm has a market cap of $35.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.84. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $12.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $9.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.24, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.93.

Venture Global (NYSE:VG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 2nd. The company reported $0.41 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.06. Venture Global had a net margin of 18.38% and a return on equity of 27.96%. The business had revenue of $4.45 billion for the quarter. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 191.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Venture Global will post 0.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Venture Global Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 16th were issued a $0.018 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 16th. This represents a $0.07 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. This is an increase from Venture Global’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.02. Venture Global’s payout ratio is presently 8.14%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Venture Global

In other news, insider Thomas Earl sold 1,000,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.83, for a total transaction of $11,830,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Sarah Blake sold 200,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.00, for a total transaction of $3,200,000.00. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 5,872,223 shares of company stock valued at $82,002,870. Corporate insiders own 86.73% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Venture Global

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Summit Financial Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Venture Global by 8.8% in the 4th quarter. Summit Financial Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 14,336 shares of the company’s stock valued at $98,000 after purchasing an additional 1,161 shares during the period. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec boosted its holdings in Venture Global by 11.0% in the 4th quarter. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec now owns 12,254 shares of the company’s stock valued at $84,000 after purchasing an additional 1,215 shares during the period. CWM LLC boosted its holdings in Venture Global by 24.1% in the 4th quarter. CWM LLC now owns 7,014 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 1,363 shares during the period. Wells Fargo & Company MN boosted its holdings in Venture Global by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 93,615 shares of the company’s stock valued at $638,000 after purchasing an additional 1,407 shares during the period. Finally, American Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Venture Global by 14.3% in the 3rd quarter. American Financial Group Inc. now owns 12,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $170,000 after purchasing an additional 1,500 shares during the period.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Venture Global from $9.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. New Street Research set a $15.00 price objective on shares of Venture Global in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Venture Global from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $8.00 to $22.00 in a research note on Monday, March 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Venture Global from $10.00 to $14.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 25th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Venture Global from $15.00 to $18.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 24th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $15.70.

About Venture Global

Venture Global (NYSE: VG) is a Houston-based energy company that develops, constructs and operates large-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities in the United States. The company focuses on converting domestically produced natural gas into LNG for shipment to international markets, positioning itself as a supplier of pipeline-quality gas in vessel-ready form for global customers.

Venture Global’s core activities include site development, engineering and construction of liquefaction and export terminals, commissioning and ongoing operations of those facilities, and commercial marketing of LNG under both long-term and short-term contracts.