Short Interest in Range Resources Co. (NYSE:RRC) Increases By 19.7%

Range Resources Co. (NYSE:RRC) was the target of a large growth in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 13,040,000 shares, a growth of 19.7% from the February 13th total of 10,890,000 shares. Currently, 5.5% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,690,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.8 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Range Resources

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Range Resources by 61.9% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,579,579 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $48,588,000 after purchasing an additional 604,199 shares during the last quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in Range Resources during the fourth quarter worth $380,000. HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Range Resources during the third quarter worth $11,508,000. Calamos Advisors LLC bought a new position in Range Resources during the fourth quarter worth $567,000. Finally, Radnor Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Range Resources by 156.2% during the fourth quarter. Radnor Capital Management LLC now owns 42,993 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $1,547,000 after acquiring an additional 26,213 shares in the last quarter. 98.93% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

RRC has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of Range Resources in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Wolfe Research raised 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 report on Friday, January 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Range Resources from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $43.00 to $45.00 in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Range Resources from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Range Resources from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.95.

Range Resources Trading Up 2.1 %

NYSE RRC traded up $0.84 on Wednesday, hitting $40.48. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,874,245 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,297,991. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. Range Resources has a 1-year low of $27.29 and a 1-year high of $41.95. The company’s 50-day moving average is $38.47 and its 200 day moving average is $34.62. The firm has a market cap of $9.77 billion, a PE ratio of 20.44, a PEG ratio of 5.11 and a beta of 1.80.

Range Resources (NYSE:RRC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.13. Range Resources had a net margin of 17.63% and a return on equity of 13.69%. The firm had revenue of $626.42 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $676.53 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.63 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Range Resources will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Range Resources Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.09 dividend. This is a positive change from Range Resources’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Range Resources’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.73%.

Range Resources Company 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.