Bank of Montreal Can Buys Shares of 13,407,837 Veren Inc. (NYSE:VRN)

Bank of Montreal Can bought a new stake in shares of Veren Inc. (NYSE:VRN) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 13,407,837 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $105,665,000. Bank of Montreal Can owned approximately 2.17% of Veren as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in VRN. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. purchased a new position in Veren during the 2nd quarter valued at about $36,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Veren during the second quarter worth about $42,000. Pacifica Partners Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Veren during the second quarter worth about $61,000. Fifth Third Bancorp purchased a new position in shares of Veren during the second quarter worth about $85,000. Finally, Brighton Jones LLC purchased a new position in shares of Veren during the second quarter worth about $108,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Scotiabank cut their price objective on Veren from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 12th.

Veren Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE VRN opened at $6.51 on Wednesday. Veren Inc. has a 12 month low of $6.03 and a 12 month high of $9.28. The company has a quick ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -81.31 and a beta of 2.16. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $7.04.

Veren (NYSE:VRN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28. The company had revenue of $852.57 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $821.00 million. Veren had a positive return on equity of 13.50% and a negative net margin of 0.69%. On average, analysts predict that Veren Inc. will post 1.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Veren Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Investors of record on Sunday, September 15th will be given a $0.0834 dividend. This is an increase from Veren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $0.33 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.13%. Veren’s payout ratio is presently -412.50%.

Veren Company Profile

Veren Inc explores, develops, and produces oil and gas properties in Canada and the United States. The company focuses on crude oil, tight oil, natural gas liquids, shale gas, and natural gas reserves. Its properties are located in the provinces of Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, and Manitoba; and the states of North Dakota.