Enerplus (NYSE:ERF) Coverage Initiated at StockNews.com

Research analysts at StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Enerplus (NYSE:ERF) (TSE:ERF) in a report issued on Monday. The brokerage set a “hold” rating on the oil and natural gas company’s stock.

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

Enerplus Stock Performance

Shares of ERF stock opened at $20.09 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $20.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $17.66. The stock has a market cap of $4.10 billion, a PE ratio of 11.16 and a beta of 1.97. Enerplus has a 1 year low of $13.46 and a 1 year high of $20.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a current ratio of 0.70.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Enerplus

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ERF. Citigroup Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Enerplus by 239.7% during the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 40,727 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $720,000 after purchasing an additional 28,738 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG grew its holdings in shares of Enerplus by 7,592.3% during the third quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,092,996 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $19,270,000 after purchasing an additional 1,078,787 shares during the last quarter. Prudential PLC grew its holdings in shares of Enerplus by 43.8% during the third quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 26,420 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $465,000 after purchasing an additional 8,052 shares during the last quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC grew its holdings in shares of Enerplus by 5.8% during the third quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC now owns 328,506 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $5,792,000 after purchasing an additional 18,006 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Enerplus by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,697,831 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $29,933,000 after buying an additional 25,215 shares in the last quarter. 58.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.