Cheniere Energy, Inc. $LNG Shares Bought by Assenagon Asset Management S.A.

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Cheniere Energy, Inc. (NYSE:LNG) by 1.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 191,962 shares of the energy company’s stock after buying an additional 3,464 shares during the quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in Cheniere Energy were worth $45,107,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in LNG. Assetmark Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cheniere Energy by 718.1% in the second quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,669 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $406,000 after buying an additional 1,465 shares during the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its position in Cheniere Energy by 3.3% during the second quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 39,440 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $9,604,000 after acquiring an additional 1,273 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in Cheniere Energy by 3.9% in the second quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 109,285 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $26,360,000 after acquiring an additional 4,083 shares during the period. Baird Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in Cheniere Energy by 9.5% in the 2nd quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 97,267 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $23,686,000 after purchasing an additional 8,449 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. boosted its position in Cheniere Energy by 10.4% in the 2nd quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 420,068 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $102,295,000 after purchasing an additional 39,467 shares in the last quarter. 87.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cheniere Energy

In other news, Director W Benjamin Moreland bought 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $208.22 per share, for a total transaction of $1,041,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 9,856 shares in the company, valued at $2,052,216.32. The trade was a 102.97% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.26% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Cheniere Energy Stock Performance

LNG opened at $189.63 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.12. The company has a market cap of $40.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.56, a PEG ratio of 4.66 and a beta of 0.26. Cheniere Energy, Inc. has a 52-week low of $186.20 and a 52-week high of $257.65. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $209.69 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $226.61.

Cheniere Energy (NYSE:LNG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The energy company reported $4.75 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.75 by $2.00. The business had revenue of $4.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.87 billion. Cheniere Energy had a net margin of 21.12% and a return on equity of 37.52%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.93 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Cheniere Energy, Inc. will post 11.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cheniere Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, November 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 7th were issued a dividend of $0.555 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 7th. This is an increase from Cheniere Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.22 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Cheniere Energy’s payout ratio is currently 12.37%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on LNG. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $275.00 price objective on shares of Cheniere Energy in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Cheniere Energy in a report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group set a $290.00 price objective on shares of Cheniere Energy in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on shares of Cheniere Energy from $261.00 to $257.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. Finally, Raymond James Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $278.00 target price (up from $275.00) on shares of Cheniere Energy in a research report on Friday, October 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $267.53.

Cheniere Energy Company Profile

Cheniere Energy, Inc, an energy infrastructure company, primarily engages in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) related businesses in the United States. It owns and operates the Sabine Pass LNG terminal in Cameron Parish, Louisiana; and the Corpus Christi LNG terminal near Corpus Christi, Texas. The company also owns Creole Trail pipeline, a 94-mile natural gas supply pipeline that interconnects the Sabine Pass LNG Terminal with several interstate and intrastate pipelines; and operates Corpus Christi pipeline, a 21.5-mile natural gas supply pipeline that interconnects the Corpus Christi LNG terminal with various interstate and intrastate natural gas pipelines.