Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board Decreases Stake in ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP)

Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board cut its stake in ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) by 56.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,147 shares of the energy producer’s stock after selling 21,214 shares during the period. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board’s holdings in ConocoPhillips were worth $1,700,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of COP. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of ConocoPhillips by 35.8% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 32,192,580 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $4,097,473,000 after purchasing an additional 8,479,963 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in ConocoPhillips by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 9,900,596 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $1,132,430,000 after buying an additional 438,241 shares in the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in ConocoPhillips by 19.3% in the 3rd quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,811,289 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $717,093,000 after buying an additional 1,101,685 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners grew its holdings in ConocoPhillips by 10.3% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 4,451,796 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $567,111,000 after buying an additional 415,878 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its position in ConocoPhillips by 10.1% during the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 3,546,526 shares of the energy producer’s stock worth $405,652,000 after buying an additional 326,597 shares in the last quarter. 82.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

COP has been the topic of several recent research reports. UBS Group reduced their price objective on ConocoPhillips from $153.00 to $140.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $126.00 target price (down from $139.00) on shares of ConocoPhillips in a research note on Friday, October 11th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on ConocoPhillips from $123.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Barclays raised their price target on ConocoPhillips from $135.00 to $137.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating on shares of ConocoPhillips in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $137.63.

ConocoPhillips Trading Up 0.3 %

COP opened at $113.43 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $108.57 and its 200-day moving average is $111.48. ConocoPhillips has a 52-week low of $101.29 and a 52-week high of $135.18. The company has a quick ratio of 1.16, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $130.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.49, a P/E/G ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.21.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The energy producer reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $13.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.97 billion. ConocoPhillips had a return on equity of 19.53% and a net margin of 17.29%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.16 earnings per share. Analysts expect that ConocoPhillips will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ConocoPhillips Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th will be given a dividend of $0.78 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 8th. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.75%. This is an increase from ConocoPhillips’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.58. ConocoPhillips’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.10%.

About ConocoPhillips

ConocoPhillips explores for, produces, transports, and markets crude oil, bitumen, natural gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and natural gas liquids in the United States, Canada, China, Libya, Malaysia, Norway, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company's portfolio includes unconventional plays in North America; conventional assets in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia; global LNG developments; oil sands assets in Canada; and an inventory of global exploration prospects.