Range Resources Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:RRC)

Range Resources Co. (NYSE:RRC) was the target of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Traders bought 3,293 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 74% compared to the typical volume of 1,896 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

RRC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Truist Financial boosted their target price on Range Resources from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Citigroup cut Range Resources from a “neutral” rating to a “reduce” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Range Resources from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Raymond James upped their price objective on Range Resources from $46.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, March 31st. Finally, Susquehanna cut their price objective on Range Resources from $40.00 to $36.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $41.85.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Erin W. Mcdowell sold 9,568 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.62, for a total transaction of $388,652.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 13,800 shares in the company, valued at $560,556. The trade was a 40.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director James M. Funk sold 13,582 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.03, for a total value of $475,777.46. Following the transaction, the director now owns 54,394 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,905,421.82. The trade was a 19.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 71,880 shares of company stock worth $2,815,807 over the last ninety days. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Boston Partners raised its position in shares of Range Resources by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 7,976,052 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $287,078,000 after acquiring an additional 371,777 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Range Resources by 9.3% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,330,676 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $263,768,000 after acquiring an additional 624,955 shares in the last quarter. Lingotto Investment Management LLP raised its position in shares of Range Resources by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Lingotto Investment Management LLP now owns 6,864,038 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $246,968,000 after acquiring an additional 165,242 shares in the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Range Resources by 71.3% in the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 2,104,304 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Canoe Financial LP raised its position in shares of Range Resources by 9.4% in the 4th quarter. Canoe Financial LP now owns 2,911,509 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $104,595,000 after acquiring an additional 251,200 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.93% of the company’s stock.

Range Resources Trading Down 0.5%

RRC opened at $40.11 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $36.56 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.26, a PEG ratio of 5.11 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 0.54 and a quick ratio of 0.54. Range Resources has a one year low of $27.29 and a one year high of $41.95.

Range Resources (NYSE:RRC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $626.42 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $676.53 million. Range Resources had a return on equity of 13.69% and a net margin of 17.63%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.63 EPS. Analysts predict that Range Resources will post 2.02 EPS for the current year.

Range Resources Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.09 per share. 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. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.90%. Range Resources’s dividend payout ratio is presently 32.14%.

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.