Jefferies Financial Group Initiates Coverage on Ormat Technologies (NYSE:ORA)

Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Ormat Technologies (NYSE:ORA) in a research note issued to investors on Friday, MarketBeat reports. The firm issued a hold rating and a $73.00 price objective on the energy company’s stock.

Several other research analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Ormat Technologies from $86.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Piper Sandler began coverage on Ormat Technologies in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $78.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $92.00 price target (up previously from $87.00) on shares of Ormat Technologies in a report on Friday, November 8th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $82.25.

Ormat Technologies Stock Down 3.9 %

ORA stock opened at $65.88 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The company has a 50-day moving average of $75.55 and a two-hundred day moving average of $75.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.75 and a beta of 0.57. Ormat Technologies has a 52-week low of $59.41 and a 52-week high of $84.30.

Ormat Technologies (NYSE:ORA) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The energy company reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $211.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $215.53 million. Ormat Technologies had a return on equity of 5.27% and a net margin of 13.33%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.47 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Ormat Technologies will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

Ormat Technologies Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th were issued a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 20th. Ormat Technologies’s payout ratio is 24.49%.

Insider Activity

In other Ormat Technologies news, Director David Granot sold 1,256 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.00, for a total transaction of $102,992.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 3,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $293,232. This represents a 25.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Corp Orix sold 3,700,000 shares of Ormat Technologies stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.38, for a total transaction of $278,906,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 2,976,077 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $224,336,684.26. This trade represents a 55.42 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ormat Technologies

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ORA. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ormat Technologies by 180.3% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 356 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 229 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its holdings in Ormat Technologies by 132.4% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 402 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 229 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in Ormat Technologies by 107.7% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 617 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $47,000 after acquiring an additional 320 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Ormat Technologies by 44.0% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,051 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $81,000 after acquiring an additional 321 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DMC Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Ormat Technologies in the third quarter worth about $204,000. 95.49% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ormat Technologies Company Profile

Ormat Technologies, Inc engages in the geothermal and recovered energy power business in the United States, Indonesia, Kenya, Turkey, Chile, Guatemala, Guadeloupe, New Zealand, Honduras, and internationally. It operates in three segments: Electricity, Product, and Energy Storage. The Electricity segment develops, builds, owns, and operates geothermal, solar photovoltaic, and recovered energy-based power plants; and sells electricity.