Citigroup Lowers YPF Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:YPF) to Neutral

YPF Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:YPF) was downgraded by research analysts at Citigroup from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report released on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have a $24.00 target price on the oil and gas exploration company’s stock, up from their prior target price of $20.00. Citigroup’s price objective points to a potential upside of 22.70% from the stock’s current price.

YPF has been the topic of a number of other research reports. StockNews.com downgraded shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley raised shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $10.50 to $22.00 in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $18.00 to $27.00 in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $20.10.

YPF Sociedad Anónima Stock Down 3.4 %

NYSE:YPF traded down $0.69 on Wednesday, reaching $19.56. 1,428,121 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,355,338. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $18.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $16.05. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The company has a market capitalization of $7.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.90 and a beta of 1.90. YPF Sociedad Anónima has a 12 month low of $9.57 and a 12 month high of $22.27.

YPF Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:YPF) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 6th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $2.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.95 by ($0.95). The business had revenue of $4.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.47 billion. YPF Sociedad Anónima had a positive return on equity of 17.33% and a negative net margin of 7.58%. Equities analysts predict that YPF Sociedad Anónima will post 6.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On YPF Sociedad Anónima

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Helikon Investments Ltd raised its position in shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima by 18.5% during the third 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 last quarter. Citigroup Inc. increased its position in YPF Sociedad Anónima by 50.9% in the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 4,753,658 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $58,232,000 after purchasing an additional 1,604,368 shares during the last quarter. TT International Asset Management LTD increased its position in YPF Sociedad Anónima by 35.5% in the fourth quarter. TT International Asset Management LTD now owns 4,238,557 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $72,860,000 after purchasing an additional 1,109,483 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in YPF Sociedad Anónima by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 2,825,934 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $25,970,000 after purchasing an additional 124,317 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its position in YPF Sociedad Anónima by 11.0% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,664,285 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $24,485,000 after purchasing an additional 263,669 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 10.08% of the company’s stock.

About YPF Sociedad Anónima

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.