Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (COG) Upgraded to Hold by Zacks Investment Research

Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE:COG) was upgraded by Zacks Investment Research from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday.

According to Zacks, “Cabot's large acreage holdings in the fast-growing Marcellus Shale and the Eagle Ford Shale supports several years of drilling. We believe COG’s execution success, continued expense management and improving well economics will further enhance its outlook. A relatively low risk profile and longer reserve lives are other positives. Overall, Cabot’s diversified asset portfolio should help it generate steady production growth going forward. However, being a natural gas-weighted company, Cabot continues to reel under the effects of the commodity's price struggles as reflected by its failure to beat estimates in 8 of the last 9 quarters. As it is, delays in the development of the Constitution pipeline keep us worried. Considering these factors, we see limited upside from current levels that forms the basis of our cautious stance.”

COG has been the subject of several other reports. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “buy” rating and set a $33.00 price objective on shares of Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation in a report on Monday, May 15th. Jefferies Group LLC set a $23.00 price objective on shares of Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 17th. Bank of America Corporation raised shares of Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $28.00 to $32.00 in a report on Friday, June 30th. Piper Jaffray Companies reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $35.00 price objective on shares of Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation in a report on Monday, May 1st. Finally, Cowen and Company set a $30.00 price objective on shares of Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. The stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $29.57.

Shares of Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (COG) traded down 1.952% during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $24.865. 2,886,325 shares of the company were exchanged. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $24.44 and its 200-day moving average price is $23.50. The company’s market capitalization is $11.50 billion. Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation has a 52-week low of $20.02 and a 52-week high of $26.74.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE:COG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 27th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $460.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $454.76 million. Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation had a positive return on equity of 4.65% and a negative net margin of 10.95%. Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation’s revenue was up 86.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned ($0.07) earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation will post $0.64 EPS for the current year.

In other Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation news, insider Todd M. Roemer sold 3,737 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.12, for a total transaction of $90,136.44. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 62,453 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,506,366.36. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation by 3.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 46,495,862 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $1,111,717,000 after buying an additional 1,653,616 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation by 3,136.9% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 32,973,225 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $788,389,000 after buying an additional 31,954,562 shares during the period. Sanders Capital LLC increased its stake in Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation by 5.5% in the second quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 27,261,023 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $739,422,000 after buying an additional 1,430,599 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its stake in Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation by 32.7% in the first quarter. FMR LLC now owns 25,468,996 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $608,964,000 after buying an additional 6,277,179 shares during the period. Finally, Neuberger Berman Group LLC increased its stake in Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation by 59.5% in the first quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 18,569,604 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $443,999,000 after buying an additional 6,923,702 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 96.05% of the company’s stock.

About Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation

Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation is an independent oil and gas company engaged in the development, exploitation and exploration of oil and gas properties. The Company operates in the segment of natural gas and oil development, exploitation, exploration and production, in the continental United States. Its assets are concentrated in areas with known hydrocarbon resources, which are conducive to multi-well, repeatable drilling programs.