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

Investment analysts at Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Ormat Technologies (NYSE:ORA) in a research note issued on Friday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The brokerage set a “hold” rating and a $73.00 price target on the energy company’s stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 6.55% from the stock’s current price.

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

Ormat Technologies Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ORA opened at $68.51 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $75.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $75.23. The company has a market cap of $4.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.95, a PEG ratio of 3.75 and a beta of 0.57. Ormat Technologies has a twelve month low of $59.41 and a twelve month 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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $211.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $215.53 million. Ormat Technologies had a net margin of 13.33% and a return on equity of 5.27%. Ormat Technologies’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.47 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Ormat Technologies will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Corp Orix sold 3,700,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 2,976,077 shares in the company, valued at $224,336,684.26. This represents a 55.42 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director David Granot sold 1,256 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.00, for a total value of $102,992.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 3,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $293,232. This represents a 25.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ormat Technologies

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ormat Technologies by 180.3% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 356 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 229 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its position in Ormat Technologies by 132.4% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 402 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 229 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System increased its holdings in shares of Ormat Technologies by 1.9% in the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 15,214 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $1,091,000 after purchasing an additional 286 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in shares of Ormat Technologies by 107.7% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 617 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 320 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ormat Technologies by 44.0% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,051 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $81,000 after buying an additional 321 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.49% of the company’s stock.

About Ormat Technologies

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.