StockNews.com Initiates Coverage on Enerplus (NYSE:ERF)

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

ERF has been the subject of several other reports. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded shares of Enerplus from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $21.00 to $22.00 in a research report on Monday, April 29th. TD Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Enerplus from $19.07 to $20.09 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $21.87.

Enerplus Price Performance

NYSE ERF opened at $20.09 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. Enerplus has a 1-year low of $13.46 and a 1-year high of $20.97. The company has a 50 day moving average of $20.06 and a 200-day moving average of $17.85. The company has a market cap of $4.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.16 and a beta of 1.97.

Enerplus (NYSE:ERF) (TSE:ERF) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The oil and natural gas company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.02. Enerplus had a net margin of 24.09% and a return on equity of 33.88%. The company had revenue of $362.04 million during the quarter. On average, equities research analysts expect that Enerplus will post 1.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Enerplus

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Enerplus in the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Employees Retirement System of Texas bought a new stake in shares of Enerplus in the third quarter worth $52,000. Optiver Holding B.V. grew its stake in shares of Enerplus by 311.9% in the fourth quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 4,667 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $72,000 after purchasing an additional 3,534 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Enerplus in the first quarter worth $73,000. Finally, ICA Group Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Enerplus in the fourth quarter worth $77,000. Institutional investors own 58.42% of the company’s stock.

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.