Insider Selling: Venture Global (NYSE:VG) Director Sells $881,100.00 in Stock

Venture Global, Inc. (NYSE:VG) Director Jimmy Staton sold 66,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.35, for a total value of $881,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 1,083,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,458,050. The trade was a 5.74% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Venture Global Stock Up 3.4%

VG stock traded up $0.47 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $14.01. The stock had a trading volume of 13,439,558 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,084,408. The business has a 50-day moving average of $12.52 and a two-hundred day moving average of $12.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.40, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market cap of $34.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 0.22. Venture Global, Inc. has a 52-week low of $5.72 and a 52-week high of $17.62.

Venture Global (NYSE:VG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 10th. The company reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.01. Venture Global had a return on equity of 35.79% and a net margin of 21.24%.The business had revenue of $4.58 billion during the quarter. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Venture Global, Inc. will post 1.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Venture Global Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.04 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. This is an increase from Venture Global’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.02. This represents a $0.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. Venture Global’s payout ratio is presently 7.78%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Venture Global

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Corecam AG bought a new stake in Venture Global in the 2nd quarter worth about $2,401,000. UBS Group AG boosted its holdings in shares of Venture Global by 520.8% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 6,279,598 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,827,000 after acquiring an additional 5,268,053 shares during the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Venture Global by 304.4% during the 1st quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 149,214 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,352,000 after acquiring an additional 112,318 shares during the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Venture Global in the first quarter worth approximately $2,235,000. Finally, Clough Capital Partners L P bought a new stake in shares of Venture Global in the first quarter worth approximately $7,961,000.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VG has been the subject of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Venture Global from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Venture Global from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $16.00 to $17.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 4th. US Capital Advisors set a $13.00 target price on Venture Global in a report on Friday, May 29th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Venture Global from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Venture Global from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $12.00 to $17.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 13th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $16.12.

Venture Global Company Profile

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.