Chevron (NYSE:CVX) Trading 1% Higher Following Analyst Upgrade

Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) shot up 1% on Wednesday after Bank of America raised their price target on the stock from $170.00 to $185.00. Bank of America currently has a buy rating on the stock. Chevron traded as high as $157.32 and last traded at $156.45. 2,152,186 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 77% from the average session volume of 9,246,615 shares. The stock had previously closed at $154.85.

CVX has been the subject of several other research reports. HSBC cut shares of Chevron from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $176.00 to $158.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $178.00 target price on shares of Chevron in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Chevron in a research note on Friday, July 18th. Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of Chevron from $188.00 to $186.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. Finally, Scotiabank restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $160.00 price target (up previously from $143.00) on shares of Chevron in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Chevron has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $164.80.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director John B. Hess sold 375,000 shares of Chevron stock in a transaction on Friday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.30, for a total transaction of $59,362,500.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 1,403,045 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $222,102,023.50. This trade represents a 21.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Alana K. Knowles sold 3,978 shares of Chevron stock in a transaction on Friday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.00, for a total transaction of $636,480.00. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 1,181 shares in the company, valued at approximately $188,960. This represents a 77.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.21% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Chevron

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Berkshire Hathaway Inc lifted its position in Chevron by 2.9% in the 2nd quarter. Berkshire Hathaway Inc now owns 122,064,792 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $17,478,458,000 after acquiring an additional 3,454,258 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its position in Chevron by 652,139.5% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 83,714,936 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $13,214,757,000 after acquiring an additional 83,702,101 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Chevron by 4.0% in the 2nd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 34,772,753 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $4,979,255,000 after acquiring an additional 1,342,723 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Chevron by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 20,826,805 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $2,982,190,000 after acquiring an additional 378,936 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Chevron in the 2nd quarter valued at $2,721,477,000. 72.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Chevron Stock Up 0.3%

The firm has a market capitalization of $273.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.37, a PEG ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 0.90. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $154.49 and its 200 day moving average is $148.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 1.00.

Chevron (NYSE:CVX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The oil and gas company reported $1.77 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.58 by $0.19. Chevron had a net margin of 7.02% and a return on equity of 9.90%. The firm had revenue of $44.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $44.59 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.55 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 12.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Chevron Corporation will post 10.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Chevron Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 19th were given a dividend of $1.71 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 19th. This represents a $6.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.3%. Chevron’s payout ratio is 88.03%.

Chevron Company Profile

Chevron Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in the integrated energy and chemicals operations in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Upstream and Downstream. The Upstream segment is involved in the exploration, development, production, and transportation of crude oil and natural gas; processing, liquefaction, transportation, and regasification of liquefied natural gas; transportation of crude oil through pipelines; transportation, storage, and marketing of natural gas; and carbon capture and storage, as well as a gas-to-liquids plant.