Vital Energy (NYSE:VTLE) Shares Gap Down to $58.95

Vital Energy, Inc. (NYSE:VTLE)’s share price gapped down prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $58.95, but opened at $55.16. Vital Energy shares last traded at $56.81, with a volume of 249,229 shares traded.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on VTLE. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Vital Energy from $39.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 14th. Mizuho upped their target price on Vital Energy from $54.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 16th. Raymond James lowered their target price on Vital Energy from $68.00 to $54.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 24th. TheStreet raised Vital Energy from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 8th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $122.00 price objective on shares of Vital Energy in a research report on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Vital Energy has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $75.00.

Vital Energy Stock Down 6.5 %

The company has a market capitalization of $1.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 3.36. The company has a quick ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $54.16 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $48.66.

Vital Energy (NYSE:VTLE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 8th. The company reported $4.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.07 by $0.28. Vital Energy had a return on equity of 24.29% and a net margin of 57.79%. The firm had revenue of $335.06 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $345.19 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $7.50 EPS. Vital Energy’s quarterly revenue was down 40.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Vital Energy, Inc. will post 17.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Vital Energy

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Fifth Third Bancorp bought a new position in Vital Energy during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $184,000. Spartan Fund Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Vital Energy in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $110,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Vital Energy during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $212,000. Koss Olinger Consulting LLC bought a new position in Vital Energy during the second quarter worth $202,000. Finally, EA Series Trust bought a new position in Vital Energy during the second quarter worth $1,995,000. Institutional investors own 86.59% of the company’s stock.

About Vital Energy

Vital Energy, Inc, an independent energy company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of oil and natural gas properties in the Permian Basin of West Texas, the United States. The company was formerly known as Laredo Petroleum, Inc and changed its name to Vital Energy, Inc in January 2023.