Morgan Stanley raises Venture Global, Cheniere to 'overweight'

Morgan Stanley upgrades U.S. LNG companies Venture Global VG.N and Cheniere Energy LNG.N to "overweight" from "underweight"

Says events in the Middle East have improved the outlook for U.S. exporters and even with near-term resolution, global gas market will need to contend with refilling inventories amid a large supply loss, creating upside price risks

"What started as a transitory (but significant) capacity outage has escalated to a multi-year loss of supply, tightening '26 and mitigating oversupply in '27-28", brokerage says

VG has the greatest upside to rising global LNG prices due to a large share of uncontracted cargoes, meaning higher spot margins would materially boost earnings - Morgan Stanley

For Cheniere, the macro environment increases the likelihood of growth projects reaching a positive FID over the next 1-2 years

LNG's largely contracted portfolio ensures steady cash flows but limits direct benefit from the recent surge in Asian and European gas prices, brokerage adds

Brokerage BMO also raised its PT on LNG to $306 from $265