Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Makes New $1.97 Million Investment in Ormat Technologies, Inc. $ORA

Key Points

• Louisiana State Employees Retirement System opened a new position in Ormat Technologies, buying 17,600 shares worth about $1.97 million in the first quarter.
• Several Ormat Technologies insiders sold shares recently, including directors Dafna Sharir and David Granot, while insiders collectively sold 30,585 shares last quarter.
• Analysts remain generally upbeat on ORA, with the stock carrying a “Moderate Buy” consensus and an average price target of $131.67; the company also beat Q1 earnings and revenue estimates.

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in shares of Ormat Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:ORA - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 17,600 shares of the energy company's stock, valued at approximately $1,970,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ORA. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Ormat Technologies in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd purchased a new stake in Ormat Technologies during the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Ormat Technologies during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC acquired a new position in Ormat Technologies during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ormat Technologies by 245.3% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 297 shares of the energy company's stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 211 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.49% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ormat Technologies

In other news, Director Dafna Sharir sold 883 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $122.44, for a total transaction of $108,114.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 3,140 shares of the company's stock, valued at $384,461.60. This represents a 21.95% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director David Granot sold 1,766 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.43, for a total value of $237,403.38. Following the transaction, the director owned 1,766 shares in the company, valued at $237,403.38. This trade represents a 50.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 30,585 shares of company stock worth $4,090,998. 0.56% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ORA has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Ormat Technologies from $143.00 to $152.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Ormat Technologies from $125.00 to $142.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on Ormat Technologies in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $130.00 target price for the company. Barclays lifted their price target on Ormat Technologies from $123.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Wolfe Research started coverage on Ormat Technologies in a report on Monday, June 8th. They issued a "peer perform" rating on the stock. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $131.67.

Ormat Technologies Price Performance

NYSE:ORA opened at $109.09 on Wednesday. Ormat Technologies, Inc. has a 52 week low of $83.63 and a 52 week high of $146.39. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.70 billion, a PE ratio of 52.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.71 and a beta of 0.85. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $127.20 and its 200-day moving average price is $119.31.

Ormat Technologies (NYSE:ORA - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The energy company reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.38. The firm had revenue of $403.91 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $349.17 million. Ormat Technologies had a return on equity of 6.61% and a net margin of 10.97%.Ormat Technologies's revenue for the quarter was up 75.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.68 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ormat Technologies, Inc. will post 2.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ormat Technologies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th were given a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 20th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Ormat Technologies's payout ratio is 23.30%.

Ormat Technologies Company Profile

Ormat Technologies, Inc is a leading renewable energy company specializing in geothermal and recovered energy power plants. Through its vertically integrated business model, Ormat designs, develops, engineers, constructs, owns and operates clean energy projects worldwide. The company's core technology centers on the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC), which converts heat from geothermal sources or industrial waste streams into sustainable electricity without combustion.

Ormat's offering includes turnkey power plant solutions, proprietary ORC equipment and ongoing operations and maintenance services.

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