ING Groep NV Sells 548,600 Shares of Liberty Global Ltd. (NASDAQ:LBTYA)

ING Groep NV lessened its holdings in Liberty Global Ltd. (NASDAQ:LBTYA) by 89.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 65,000 shares of the company’s stock after selling 548,600 shares during the quarter. ING Groep NV’s holdings in Liberty Global were worth $829,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Liberty Global in the 4th quarter valued at about $536,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB bought a new position in shares of Liberty Global in the 4th quarter valued at about $812,000. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Liberty Global by 62.3% in the 4th quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 18,040 shares of the company’s stock valued at $230,000 after purchasing an additional 6,927 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in Liberty Global by 58.1% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,940 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 1,081 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tevis Investment Management boosted its stake in Liberty Global by 71.8% during the 4th quarter. Tevis Investment Management now owns 51,209 shares of the company’s stock worth $653,000 after acquiring an additional 21,404 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 37.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on LBTYA. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on shares of Liberty Global from $23.00 to $20.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. UBS Group lowered shares of Liberty Global from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $23.00 to $13.00 in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price objective on shares of Liberty Global in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of Liberty Global from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $24.70 to $12.40 in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Liberty Global from $20.00 to $12.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $17.75.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Charles H. R. Bracken sold 84,103 shares of Liberty Global stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.56, for a total value of $1,224,539.68. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 53,312 shares in the company, valued at $776,222.72. This trade represents a 61.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Nicholas V. Tompras sold 57,000 shares of Liberty Global stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $12.94, for a total transaction of $737,580.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 16,153 shares in the company, valued at $209,019.82. This trade represents a 77.92 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 11.51% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Liberty Global Stock Performance

Shares of LBTYA opened at $11.37 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.05. Liberty Global Ltd. has a twelve month low of $10.55 and a twelve month high of $21.56. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $11.87 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $16.07. The firm has a market cap of $4.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 1.24.

Liberty Global (NASDAQ:LBTYA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The company reported $6.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.92) by $7.25. Liberty Global had a net margin of 23.09% and a return on equity of 9.83%. The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.84 billion. On average, analysts forecast that Liberty Global Ltd. will post -1.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Liberty Global Profile

Liberty Global Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides broadband internet, video, fixed-line telephony, and mobile communications services to residential and business customers. It offers value-added broadband services, such as WiFi features, security, anti-virus, firewall, spam protection, smart home services, online storage solutions, and web spaces; and Connect Box that delivers in-home Wi-Fi service.