BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp Buys Shares of 324,281 Veren Inc. (NYSE:VRN)

BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Veren Inc. (NYSE:VRN) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 324,281 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,558,000.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pacifica Partners Inc. purchased a new stake in Veren in the second quarter worth approximately $61,000. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. bought a new position in shares of Veren during the 2nd quarter valued at $36,000. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of Veren in the 2nd quarter worth $293,000. Perkins Coie Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of Veren in the second quarter worth $205,000. Finally, Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Veren during the second quarter valued at $234,000. 49.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Scotiabank dropped their target price on Veren from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 12th.

Veren Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE VRN opened at $6.15 on Friday. Veren Inc. has a 12-month low of $6.03 and a 12-month high of $9.28. The company has a market capitalization of $3.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -76.88 and a beta of 2.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.49 and a quick ratio of 0.49. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $6.95.

Veren (NYSE:VRN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $0.28 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.28. The firm had revenue of $852.57 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $821.00 million. Veren had a positive return on equity of 13.50% and a negative net margin of 0.69%. Sell-side analysts predict that Veren Inc. will post 1 EPS for the current year.

Veren Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Sunday, September 15th will be paid a $0.0834 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $0.33 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.42%. This is an increase from Veren’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. Veren’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -412.50%.

About Veren

Veren Inc explores, develops, and produces oil and gas properties in Canada and the United States. The company focuses on crude oil, tight oil, natural gas liquids, shale gas, and natural gas reserves. Its properties are located in the provinces of Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, and Manitoba; and the states of North Dakota.