National Bank of Canada FI Reduces Holdings in Enerplus Co. (NYSE:ERF)

National Bank of Canada FI reduced its stake in shares of Enerplus Co. (NYSE:ERF) (TSE:ERF) by 5.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 492,893 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock after selling 27,763 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI owned 0.24% of Enerplus worth $7,505,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Enerplus in the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Enerplus by 356.5% during the third quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,958 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 2,310 shares during the last quarter. Employees Retirement System of Texas purchased a new position in Enerplus during the third quarter worth approximately $52,000. C M Bidwell & Associates Ltd. purchased a new position in Enerplus during the third quarter worth approximately $179,000. Finally, PAX Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Enerplus in the 3rd quarter valued at $212,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.42% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on ERF. Royal Bank of Canada lowered Enerplus from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $21.00 to $22.00 in a research report on Monday, April 29th. CIBC reduced their price objective on Enerplus from $23.00 to $19.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Enerplus in a research report on Wednesday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, TD Securities lifted their price target on shares of Enerplus from $19.07 to $20.09 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $21.87.

Enerplus Stock Performance

NYSE:ERF opened at $20.12 on Friday. Enerplus Co. has a 1-year low of $13.46 and a 1-year high of $20.97. The stock has a market cap of $4.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.58 and a beta of 1.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $19.43 and a two-hundred day moving average of $16.94.

Enerplus (NYSE:ERF) (TSE:ERF) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The oil and natural gas company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $437.10 million during the quarter. Enerplus had a return on equity of 40.36% and a net margin of 27.67%. On average, research analysts expect that Enerplus Co. will post 1.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Enerplus Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 4th were paid a dividend of $0.13 per share. This is a positive change from Enerplus’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 1st. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.58%. Enerplus’s payout ratio is presently 12.38%.

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.