Vital Energy price target lowered to $16 from $17 at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler lowered the firm’s price target on Vital Energy (VTLE) to $16 from $17 and keeps a Neutral rating on the shares. The firm says that it’s been a challenging investing environment in E&P to say the least, and coming out of Q2 results it feels even more so. Gas equities had been a relative safe haven on near-term LNG capacity adds and long-term demand from power/data center, but supply continues to surprise to the upside despite lower associated levels of activity. There certainly were some positives out of Q2, Piper notes, with operators continuing to drive efficiencies driving capex lower to drive the same output, while tax legislation in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” is driving incremental free cash flow across the group, or at least offsetting a weaker commodity strip.