Enerplus (NYSE:ERF) Now Covered by StockNews.com

Investment analysts at StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Enerplus (NYSE:ERF) (TSE:ERF) in a research note issued on Tuesday. The brokerage set a “hold” rating on the oil and natural gas company’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada cut Enerplus from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and increased their target price for the company from $21.00 to $22.00 in a report on Monday, April 29th. TD Securities increased their price objective on Enerplus from $19.07 to $20.09 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, May 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $21.87.

Enerplus Price Performance

Enerplus stock opened at $20.09 on Tuesday. Enerplus has a 52 week low of $13.46 and a 52 week high of $20.97. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $20.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $17.80. The company has a quick ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The stock has a market cap of $4.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.16 and a beta of 1.97.

Enerplus (NYSE:ERF) (TSE:ERF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 8th. The oil and natural gas company reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $362.04 million for the quarter. Enerplus had a return on equity of 33.88% and a net margin of 24.09%. On average, research analysts forecast that Enerplus will post 1.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Enerplus

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Enerplus in the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Employees Retirement System of Texas bought a new stake in shares of Enerplus in the 3rd quarter worth $52,000. Optiver Holding B.V. increased its holdings in shares of Enerplus by 311.9% in the 4th quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 4,667 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $72,000 after purchasing an additional 3,534 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Enerplus in the 1st quarter worth $73,000. Finally, ICA Group Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Enerplus in the 4th quarter worth $77,000. Institutional investors own 58.42% of the company’s stock.

About Enerplus

Enerplus Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, explores and develops crude oil and natural gas in the United States. Its oil and natural gas properties are located primarily in North Dakota, Colorado, and Pennsylvania. The company was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.