Pinnacle Associates Ltd. Cuts Stake in Golar LNG Limited (NASDAQ:GLNG)

Pinnacle Associates Ltd. lowered its holdings in shares of Golar LNG Limited (NASDAQ:GLNG) by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,449,028 shares of the shipping company’s stock after selling 51,600 shares during the quarter. Golar LNG makes up approximately 0.8% of Pinnacle Associates Ltd.’s holdings, making the stock its 24th biggest position. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. owned about 1.39% of Golar LNG worth $53,266,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in Golar LNG by 171.4% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 98,506 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $2,370,000 after buying an additional 62,205 shares in the last quarter. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Golar LNG in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,252,000. Quantbot Technologies LP raised its stake in Golar LNG by 3.6% during the 1st quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 49,286 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $1,186,000 after acquiring an additional 1,715 shares during the period. Allegheny Financial Group LTD boosted its position in shares of Golar LNG by 86.6% in the first quarter. Allegheny Financial Group LTD now owns 38,493 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $926,000 after purchasing an additional 17,859 shares during the period. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC raised its position in shares of Golar LNG by 366.6% during the 1st quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 23,801 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $573,000 after purchasing an additional 18,700 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on GLNG shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Golar LNG from $43.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. B. Riley upped their price target on shares of Golar LNG from $35.50 to $44.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. StockNews.com upgraded Golar LNG to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Golar LNG from $55.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $49.63.

Golar LNG Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GLNG traded up $0.26 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $36.96. The stock had a trading volume of 128,647 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,182,505. Golar LNG Limited has a one year low of $19.94 and a one year high of $39.40. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The company has a market capitalization of $3.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.18 and a beta of 0.58. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $35.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $31.50.

Golar LNG (NASDAQ:GLNG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 15th. The shipping company reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.02). Golar LNG had a return on equity of 9.20% and a net margin of 50.89%. The company had revenue of $62.98 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $67.38 million. As a group, research analysts expect that Golar LNG Limited will post 1.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Golar LNG Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 26th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 26th. Golar LNG’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.