Zacks Research Downgrades Berry (NASDAQ:BRY) to Strong Sell

Berry (NASDAQ:BRY) was downgraded by analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a note issued to investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on BRY. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Berry from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 9th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Berry from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Johnson Rice cut shares of Berry from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $4.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, September 16th. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of Berry from $5.00 to $4.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Berry has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $4.00.

Berry Stock Performance

Berry stock opened at $3.33 on Monday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $3.45 and its 200-day moving average price is $3.02. Berry has a twelve month low of $2.11 and a twelve month high of $5.90. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The company has a market cap of $258.41 million, a PE ratio of 47.57 and a beta of 1.20.

Berry (NASDAQ:BRY) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The energy company reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.01 by $0.65. Berry had a net margin of 0.60% and a return on equity of 5.27%. The firm had revenue of $210.08 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $155.00 million. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Berry will post 0.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Berry

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BRY. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Berry during the 1st quarter valued at about $34,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Berry by 41.2% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 734,297 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $2,357,000 after buying an additional 214,344 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC bought a new stake in Berry during the 1st quarter valued at about $73,000. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in Berry by 51.1% during the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 16,398 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $53,000 after buying an additional 5,547 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its holdings in Berry by 16.5% during the 1st quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 157,228 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $505,000 after buying an additional 22,323 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.88% of the company’s stock.

Berry Company Profile

Berry Petroleum Company, LLC., formerly Berry Petroleum Company, is an independent energy company. The Company is engaged in the production, development, exploitation, and acquisition of oil and natural gas. The Company’s principal reserves and producing properties are located in California (South Midway-Sunset (SMWSS)-Steam Floods, North Midway-Sunset (NMWSS)-Diatomite, NMWSS-New Steam Floods, Texas (Permian and E.