Piedmont Lithium Inc. (NASDAQ:PLL) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Piedmont Lithium Inc. (NASDAQ:PLL) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the seven brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have assigned a hold recommendation, two have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $20.63.

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Roth Mkm dropped their price objective on Piedmont Lithium from $13.00 to $8.25 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Macquarie raised Piedmont Lithium from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Roth Capital downgraded shares of Piedmont Lithium from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Piedmont Lithium from $9.50 to $14.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 29th.

Insider Activity at Piedmont Lithium

In related news, CEO Keith D. Phillips sold 41,867 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $12.31, for a total transaction of $515,382.77. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 170,616 shares in the company, valued at $2,100,282.96. This represents a 19.70 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.81% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Piedmont Lithium

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PLL. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Piedmont Lithium by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 413,366 shares of the mineral exploration company’s stock valued at $3,614,000 after acquiring an additional 4,505 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. increased its holdings in Piedmont Lithium by 187.8% in the 4th quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 300,000 shares of the mineral exploration company’s stock worth $2,622,000 after purchasing an additional 195,756 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Piedmont Lithium by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 156,989 shares of the mineral exploration company’s stock valued at $1,372,000 after purchasing an additional 5,247 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Piedmont Lithium by 15.2% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 154,881 shares of the mineral exploration company’s stock valued at $1,383,000 after purchasing an additional 20,481 shares in the last quarter. Finally, HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Piedmont Lithium by 2.9% during the third quarter. HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC now owns 153,007 shares of the mineral exploration company’s stock worth $1,366,000 after purchasing an additional 4,345 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 52.23% of the company’s stock.

Piedmont Lithium Price Performance

Shares of Piedmont Lithium stock opened at $7.96 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.99, a current ratio of 2.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $154.74 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.40 and a beta of 0.78. Piedmont Lithium has a twelve month low of $6.57 and a twelve month high of $17.66. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $8.75 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $9.90.

Piedmont Lithium (NASDAQ:PLL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The mineral exploration company reported ($0.55) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.43) by ($0.12). The business had revenue of $45.59 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $52.60 million. Piedmont Lithium had a negative net margin of 64.84% and a negative return on equity of 17.74%. Analysts forecast that Piedmont Lithium will post -0.91 EPS for the current year.

About Piedmont Lithium

Piedmont Lithium Inc, a development stage company, engages in the exploration and development of resource projects in the United States. The company primarily holds a 100% interest in the Carolina Lithium Project that include an area of approximately 3,706 acres located within the Carolina Tin-Spodumene Belt situated to the northwest of Charlotte, North Carolina in the United States.