William Blair Investment Management LLC Takes Position in YPF Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:YPF)

William Blair Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in YPF Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:YPF) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 1,074,249 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,664,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Erste Asset Management GmbH purchased a new position in shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima in the fourth quarter valued at $853,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima in the fourth quarter valued at $419,000. HighTower Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima in the fourth quarter valued at $361,000. Banco Santander S.A. boosted its stake in shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima by 46.0% during the fourth quarter. Banco Santander S.A. now owns 18,151 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $772,000 after acquiring an additional 5,718 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima during the fourth quarter valued at $2,513,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 10.08% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $38.00 price objective (up previously from $30.00) on shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Bank of America raised YPF Sociedad Anónima from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $31.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised YPF Sociedad Anónima from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $25.00 to $59.50 in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Citigroup lowered YPF Sociedad Anónima from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $33.00 to $44.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, StockNews.com raised YPF Sociedad Anónima from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, YPF Sociedad Anónima presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $39.16.

YPF Sociedad Anónima Trading Up 1.0 %

NYSE:YPF opened at $36.16 on Tuesday. YPF Sociedad Anónima has a 12-month low of $16.18 and a 12-month high of $47.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.26, a P/E/G ratio of 0.18 and a beta of 1.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.68. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $38.54 and a 200 day simple moving average of $33.76.

YPF Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:YPF) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, March 7th. The oil and gas exploration company reported ($0.74) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($1.25). YPF Sociedad Anónima had a return on equity of 32.76% and a net margin of 4.15%. The business had revenue of $4.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.86 billion. Equities research analysts predict that YPF Sociedad Anónima will post 7.25 EPS for the current year.

About YPF Sociedad Anónima

YPF Sociedad Anónima, an energy company, engages in the oil and gas upstream and downstream activities in Argentina. Its upstream operations include the exploration, exploitation, and production of crude oil, and natural gas. The company’s downstream operations include petrochemical production and crude oil refining; transportation and distribution refined and petrochemical products; commercialization of crude oil, petrochemical products, and specialties.