YPF Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:YPF) Upgraded by Citigroup to Buy Rating

YPF Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:YPF - Get Free Report) was upgraded by stock analysts at Citigroup from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating in a note issued to investors on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage presently has a $48.00 target price on the oil and gas exploration company's stock, up from their previous target price of $44.00. Citigroup's price objective points to a potential upside of 31.51% from the company's previous close.

YPF has been the topic of a number of other reports. Wall Street Zen cut shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. HSBC raised YPF Sociedad Anónima from a "reduce" rating to a "hold" rating and raised their price objective for the company from $21.00 to $33.00 in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised YPF Sociedad Anónima to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $41.30.

YPF Sociedad Anónima Price Performance

Shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima stock traded up $0.38 on Monday, reaching $36.50. The stock had a trading volume of 1,072,625 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,106,520. YPF Sociedad Anónima has a 1 year low of $16.18 and a 1 year high of $47.43. The company has a market cap of $14.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.18 and a beta of 1.89. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The business's 50 day moving average is $32.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $36.79.

YPF Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:YPF - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, March 7th. The oil and gas exploration company reported ($0.74) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($1.25). The company had revenue of $4.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.86 billion. YPF Sociedad Anónima had a return on equity of 32.76% and a net margin of 4.15%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that YPF Sociedad Anónima will post 7.25 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On YPF Sociedad Anónima

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in YPF. Advisors Preferred LLC purchased a new position in shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima during the 4th quarter valued at about $44,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. increased its stake in YPF Sociedad Anónima by 742.6% in the 1st quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 1,938 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock worth $68,000 after acquiring an additional 1,708 shares during the last quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd bought a new stake in YPF Sociedad Anónima in the 1st quarter worth approximately $89,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in YPF Sociedad Anónima by 16.1% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,427 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock worth $103,000 after acquiring an additional 336 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Verde Servicos Internacionais S.A. bought a new position in shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $128,000. 10.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.