The Vanguard Group, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Cheniere Energy Inc. (AMEX:LNG). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Energy company by 0.72% to 23.01 million shares with purchase of 0.16 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 9.25% valued currently at $3.62 billion. In addition, BlackRock Fund Advisors raised its holdings by 0.99 million to 12.57 million shares. And JPMorgan Investment Management, I has lifted its position by 71.76% or 1.99 million shares – to 4.76 million shares.
With over 2.81 million Cheniere Energy Inc. (LNG) shares trading Friday and a closing price of $154.23 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $433.97 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -3.11% and its price on 03/10/23 gained nearly 0.71%. Currently, there are 246.90M common shares owned by the public and among those 240.11M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 23 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for LNG have a consensus price objective of $199.95. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $236.00 and a low of $168.00. The average price target is 22.87% above its recent price level and an upside to the estimated low will see the stock gain 8.2% over that period. But an upside of 34.65% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $195.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 35 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 9 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 17,437 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 26 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 160,059 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Cheniere Energy Inc. are Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, Vanguard Mid Cap Index Fund, and Vanguard Extended Market Index Fu. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index owns 7.62 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $1.2 billion. The company bought an additional 60266.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 3.07% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Mid Cap Index Fund bought 9331.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 5.8 million shares valued at over $911.95 million and representing 2.33% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Extended Market Index Fu bought 5130.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 3.37 million shares at a value of $530.89 million. Vanguard Extended Market Index Fu now owns shares totaling to 1.36% of the shares outstanding.
However, the script later moved the day high at 156.18, up 0.71%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -6.17% and -8.40% over the past three months. LNG shares are trading 2.85% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 15.08% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $120.09 and touched a high of $182.35 over the same period. LNG has an average intraday trading volume of 1.93 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 0.25%, 1.95%, and 0.06% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Cheniere Energy Inc. (AMEX: LNG) shares accounts for 87.50% of the company’s 246.90M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 38.71%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 46.88% and 31.08% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $37.32B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.02. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 29.00, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $5.32. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 2.79% over the week and 3.11% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Cheniere Energy Inc. (LNG) will achieve an EPS of $5.79 for the current quarter, $4.83 for the next quarter and $17.34 for 2023. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $1.3 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $8.03. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was -$5.22 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 160.90%, and -26.23% over the next financial year.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 23 brokerage firm advisors rate Cheniere Energy Inc. (LNG) as a “Strong Buy” at a consensus score of 1.60. Specifically, 19 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 1 of the 23 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Citigroup coverage for the Cheniere Energy Inc. (LNG) stock in a research note released on December 09, 2022 offered a Buy rating with a price target of $205. Jefferies was of a view on October 19, 2022 that the stock is Buy, while Mizuho gave the stock Buy rating on November 18, 2021, issuing a price target of $122. Raymond James on their part issued Strong Buy rating on January 11, 2021.
