MQS Management LLC Invests $334,000 in Golar LNG Limited (NASDAQ:GLNG)

MQS Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Golar LNG Limited (NASDAQ:GLNG) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 13,883 shares of the shipping company’s stock, valued at approximately $334,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of GLNG. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. increased its stake in Golar LNG by 32.0% in the first quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. now owns 3,586,994 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $86,303,000 after purchasing an additional 870,233 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in Golar LNG by 6.2% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,238,512 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $28,473,000 after purchasing an additional 72,672 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Golar LNG in the fourth quarter valued at $23,773,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Golar LNG by 74.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,015,644 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $24,436,000 after purchasing an additional 433,299 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd bought a new stake in Golar LNG in the fourth quarter valued at $12,102,000. Institutional investors own 92.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on GLNG shares. BTIG Research upped their target price on shares of Golar LNG from $36.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Golar LNG from $34.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 24th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Golar LNG from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on shares of Golar LNG from $28.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 29th. Finally, B. Riley upped their target price on shares of Golar LNG from $35.50 to $44.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $42.30.

Golar LNG Stock Up 0.3 %

NASDAQ:GLNG traded up $0.12 on Friday, hitting $35.48. The stock had a trading volume of 67,616 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,196,959. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 1.49 and a current ratio of 1.49. The stock has a market cap of $3.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.68 and a beta of 0.64. Golar LNG Limited has a 1 year low of $19.94 and a 1 year high of $36.52. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $30.07 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $25.68.

Golar LNG (NASDAQ:GLNG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 28th. The shipping company reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.44 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $63.19 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.27 million. Golar LNG had a net margin of 38.11% and a return on equity of 10.15%. Analysts predict that Golar LNG Limited will post 1.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Golar LNG Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 10th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.82%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 10th. Golar LNG’s dividend payout ratio is currently 95.24%.

Golar LNG Company Profile

Golar LNG Limited designs, converts, owns, and operates marine infrastructure for the liquefaction of natural gas. The company operates through three segments: FLNG, Corporate and Other, and Shipping. It engages in the regasification, storage, and offloading of liquefied natural gas (LNG); operation of floating liquefaction natural gas (FLNG) vessels or projects; transportation of LNG carriers; and vessel management activities.