Venture Global (NYSE:VG) COO Sells $1,755,064.65 in Stock

Key Points

• Venture Global COO Brian Cothran sold shares worth about $1.76 million on May 20, disposing of 120,623 shares at an average price of $14.55.
• Cothran also made additional recent sales on May 19 and May 21, bringing the total disclosed insider selling in this stretch to several hundred thousand shares.
• The company recently posted better-than-expected earnings with $0.19 EPS versus $0.12 estimated, while analysts currently rate the stock a consensus “Moderate Buy” with a target price around $16.47.

Venture Global, Inc. (NYSE:VG - Get Free Report) COO Brian Cothran sold 120,623 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.55, for a total value of $1,755,064.65. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Brian Cothran also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, May 19th, Brian Cothran sold 473,533 shares of Venture Global stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.81, for a total value of $7,013,023.73.
• On Thursday, May 21st, Brian Cothran sold 31,910 shares of Venture Global stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.33, for a total value of $457,270.30.

Venture Global Price Performance

Shares of Venture Global stock traded down $0.45 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $13.58. 17,748,643 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 21,926,365. 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 $33.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.08, a PEG ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 0.44. Venture Global, Inc. has a 52 week low of $5.72 and a 52 week high of $19.50. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $13.63 and a 200-day simple moving average of $10.13.

Venture Global (NYSE:VG - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Monday, May 11th. The company reported $0.19 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.12 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $4.60 billion during the quarter. Venture Global had a return on equity of 26.90% and a net margin of 16.94%.The business's revenue was up 58.9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Venture Global, Inc. will post 1.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Venture Global Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Investors of record on Monday, March 16th were given a dividend of $0.018 per share. This is a boost from Venture Global's previous quarterly dividend of $0.02. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 16th. This represents a $0.07 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. Venture Global's dividend payout ratio is 7.78%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Venture Global

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Venture Global by 147.4% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,862,372 shares of the company's stock valued at $324,417,000 after purchasing an additional 13,620,863 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Venture Global by 82.7% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,812,233 shares of the company's stock valued at $73,739,000 after purchasing an additional 4,893,707 shares in the last quarter. UBS Group AG increased its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 5,268,053 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Venture Global by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,101,668 shares of the company's stock valued at $34,811,000 after purchasing an additional 273,331 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cohen & Steers Inc. increased its holdings in Venture Global by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 4,963,166 shares of the company's stock valued at $33,849,000 after purchasing an additional 219,505 shares in the last quarter.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. UBS Group raised their target price on Venture Global from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 25th. Scotiabank raised their target price on Venture Global from $13.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Venture Global from a "sell (d+)" rating to a "hold (c)" rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Venture Global from $19.00 to $16.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Venture Global from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their target price for the stock from $12.00 to $17.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $16.47.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.