Legal & General Group Plc Makes New $10.36 Million Investment in Frontline PLC $FRO

Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Frontline PLC (NYSE:FRO) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 298,073 shares of the shipping company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,355,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of FRO. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Frontline in the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Fiduciary Financial Advisors bought a new position in shares of Frontline in the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. Assetmark Inc. lifted its position in Frontline by 278.6% during the 1st quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 973 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 716 shares during the period. Sunbelt Securities Inc. purchased a new position in Frontline during the 3rd quarter valued at about $41,000. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Frontline by 58.9% during the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,311 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 486 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 22.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. BTIG Research upped their price objective on shares of Frontline from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Pareto Securities cut Frontline from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $39.46 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, May 25th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Frontline from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. DZ Bank downgraded Frontline from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, August 21st. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Frontline from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Friday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $41.62.

Frontline Stock Performance

Shares of Frontline stock opened at $43.73 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $9.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.77 and a beta of 0.02. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $39.36 and its 200 day moving average is $36.93. Frontline PLC has a 1 year low of $20.31 and a 1 year high of $45.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 2.03 and a quick ratio of 2.03.

Frontline (NYSE:FRO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 28th. The shipping company reported $2.96 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.74 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $943.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $758.85 million. Frontline had a net margin of 36.70% and a return on equity of 27.80%. Frontline’s revenue for the quarter was up 96.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.36 EPS.

Frontline Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 18th will be paid a $2.61 dividend. This is a boost from Frontline’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.55. This represents a $10.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 23.9%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 18th. Frontline’s payout ratio is currently 152.71%.

Frontline Profile

Frontline Ltd. (NYSE:FRO) is a leading global shipping company specializing in the seaborne transportation of crude oil and petroleum products. The company’s core business activities encompass the ownership and operation of very large crude carriers (VLCCs), Suezmax tankers and Aframax vessels. Through long-term charters, spot market operations and time charters, Frontline provides flexible shipping solutions that cater to a diverse set of energy producers, refiners and trading houses worldwide.

Frontline’s fleet is geared toward high-capacity, ocean-going tankers capable of carrying large volumes of crude oil over intercontinental distances.