Raymond James Issues Positive Forecast for Range Resources (NYSE:RRC) Stock Price

Range Resources (NYSE:RRC) had its price target lifted by Raymond James from $46.00 to $55.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the oil and gas exploration company’s stock.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of Range Resources in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Range Resources from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $40.00 to $49.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Range Resources from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Williams Trading set a $40.00 price target on shares of Range Resources in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Stephens upped their price objective on shares of Range Resources from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Range Resources currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $41.60.

Range Resources Stock Performance

Shares of RRC stock opened at $39.91 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $38.49 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $35.29. Range Resources has a 12 month low of $27.29 and a 12 month high of $41.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.63 billion, a PE ratio of 20.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.11 and a beta of 1.80.

Range Resources (NYSE:RRC) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.13. Range Resources had a net margin of 17.63% and a return on equity of 13.69%. The company had revenue of $626.42 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $676.53 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.63 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Range Resources will post 2.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Range Resources Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.90%. This is a positive change from Range Resources’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Range Resources’s payout ratio is currently 32.73%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Range Resources

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Boston Partners raised its stake in shares of Range Resources by 4.9% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 7,976,052 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $287,078,000 after purchasing an additional 371,777 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Range Resources by 9.3% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,330,676 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $263,768,000 after buying an additional 624,955 shares in the last quarter. Lingotto Investment Management LLP increased its position in shares of Range Resources by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Lingotto Investment Management LLP now owns 6,864,038 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $246,968,000 after buying an additional 165,242 shares during the period. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Range Resources by 71.3% in the fourth quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,057,280 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $181,961,000 after buying an additional 2,104,304 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Range Resources by 0.9% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,003,299 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $123,174,000 after acquiring an additional 35,344 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.93% of the company’s stock.

About Range Resources

Range Resources Corporation operates as an independent natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs), crude oil, and condensate company in the United States. The company engages in the exploration, development, and acquisition of natural gas and crude oil properties located in the Appalachian region. It sells natural gas to utilities, marketing and midstream companies, and industrial users; NGLs to petrochemical end users, marketers/traders, and natural gas processors; and oil and condensate to crude oil processors, transporters, and refining and marketing companies.