YPF Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:YPF) Downgraded by StockNews.com to Hold

StockNews.com lowered shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:YPF) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning.

A number of other research firms have also weighed in on YPF. Morgan Stanley raised shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating and raised their price target for the company from $10.50 to $22.00 in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Citigroup raised shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $20.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima from a neutral rating to a buy rating and raised their price target for the company from $18.00 to $27.00 in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $20.58.

YPF Sociedad Anónima Stock Performance

Shares of YPF stock opened at $19.34 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $18.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $16.14. The company has a market cap of $7.61 billion, a PE ratio of -5.77 and a beta of 1.90. YPF Sociedad Anónima has a 52 week low of $9.57 and a 52 week high of $22.27. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77.

YPF Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:YPF) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 6th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $2.00 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.95 by ($0.95). The firm had revenue of $4.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.47 billion. YPF Sociedad Anónima had a negative net margin of 7.58% and a positive return on equity of 17.33%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that YPF Sociedad Anónima will post 6.14 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Helikon Investments Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima by 18.5% in the 3rd quarter. Helikon Investments Ltd now owns 11,823,432 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $144,837,000 after buying an additional 1,845,105 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima by 50.9% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 4,753,658 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $58,232,000 after buying an additional 1,604,368 shares during the period. TT International Asset Management LTD boosted its holdings in shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima by 35.5% in the 4th quarter. TT International Asset Management LTD now owns 4,238,557 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $72,860,000 after buying an additional 1,109,483 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 2,825,934 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $25,970,000 after buying an additional 124,317 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima by 11.0% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,664,285 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $24,485,000 after buying an additional 263,669 shares during the period. 10.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

YPF Sociedad Anónima Company Profile

YPF Sociedad Anónima, an energy company, engages in the oil and gas upstream and downstream activities in Argentina. Its upstream operations include the exploration, exploitation, and production of crude oil, natural gas, and NGLs. The company's downstream operations include the refining, marketing, and distribution of oil and petroleum products, as well as petroleum derivatives, such as petrochemicals, hydrocarbons, non-fossil fuels, biofuels, and related components; and production of hydrocarbons electric power.