CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE:CNX) was downgraded by equities researchers at Morgan Stanley from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a note issued to investors on Friday, The Fly reports. They currently have a $29.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 406.99% from the stock’s previous close.

Other hedge funds and institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. ICON Advisers purchased a new position in shares of CONSOL Energy during the third quarter worth $4,625,000. Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. purchased a new position in shares of CONSOL Energy during the fourth quarter worth $5,312,000. Capstone Asset Management Company raised its position in shares of CONSOL Energy by 795.7% in the fourth quarter. Capstone Asset Management Company now owns 121,115 shares of the company’s stock worth $957,000 after buying an additional 107,593 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors purchased a new position in shares of CONSOL Energy during the fourth quarter worth $302,000. Finally, Janus Capital Management raised its position in shares of CONSOL Energy by 139.2% in the third quarter. Janus Capital Management now owns 30,738 shares of the company’s stock worth $301,000 after buying an additional 17,889 shares in the last quarter.

In other CONSOL Energy news, Director William N. Thorndike, Jr. bought 30,000 shares of CONSOL Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 17th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $7.78 per share, with a total value of $233,400.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 92,397 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $718,848.66. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Alvin R. Carpenter bought 10,000 shares of CONSOL Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 29th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $7.04 per share, for a total transaction of $70,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 89,591 shares in the company, valued at $630,720.64. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here.

Shares of CONSOL Energy (NYSE:CNX) traded up 6.47% during trading on Friday, hitting $6.09. The stock had a trading volume of 3,278,595 shares. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $7.03 and a 200 day moving average price of $10.73. The company’s market cap is $1.39 billion. CONSOL Energy has a 12 month low of $4.54 and a 12 month high of $34.56.

CONSOL Energy (NYSE:CNX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 27th. The company reported ($0.28) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of ($0.02) by $0.26. The firm earned $813.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $735.02 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.09 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that CONSOL Energy will post ($0.38) EPS for the current fiscal year.

A number of other research firms have also recently issued reports on CNX. Nomura dropped their price objective on CONSOL Energy from $27.00 to $12.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 28th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on CONSOL Energy from $20.00 to $10.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 28th. Deutsche Bank cut CONSOL Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $13.00 to $6.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 3rd. Macquarie boosted their price objective on CONSOL Energy from $9.00 to $12.40 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 28th. Finally, Barclays restated a “hold” rating on shares of CONSOL Energy in a report on Friday, January 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. CONSOL Energy currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $16.54.

CONSOL Energy Inc. is an integrated energy company. The Company operates through two divisions: oil and gas exploration and production (NYSE:CNX), and coal mining. The E&P division is focused on natural gas and liquids activities, including production, gathering, processing and acquisition of natural gas properties in the Appalachian Basin (Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Virginia and Tennessee). The coal division is focused on the extraction and preparation of coal, in the Appalachian Basin. It holds two joint ventures, one with Noble Energy, Inc. in the Marcellus Shale and one with a subsidiary of Hess Corporation in the Utica Shale. Its gas operations include Marcellus Shale, Utica Shale, Coalbed Methane and Other Gas properties. Its coal mining division includes Pennsylvania (PA) operations coal segment, Virginia (VA) operations coal segment and other coal segment. As of December 31, 2014, the Company has a total production of 645,792 million cubic feet per day (Mcfe per day).

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