Raymond James Trust N.A. Invests $571,000 in Hess Co. (NYSE:HES)

Raymond James Trust N.A. acquired a new stake in shares of Hess Co. (NYSE:HES) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 4,202 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock, valued at approximately $571,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Hess by 3.0% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 72,362 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $11,043,000 after buying an additional 2,136 shares during the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Hess in the first quarter valued at approximately $275,000. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Hess by 12.2% during the 1st quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 753,564 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $115,024,000 after purchasing an additional 81,646 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Hess by 59.9% during the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 26,823 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $4,087,000 after purchasing an additional 10,053 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new position in shares of Hess during the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HES has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Hess from $171.00 to $151.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on Hess from $173.00 to $167.00 in a research note on Friday, September 13th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Hess from $192.00 to $173.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Mizuho dropped their price target on shares of Hess from $210.00 to $194.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Susquehanna upped their price objective on shares of Hess from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $163.30.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Hess news, CEO John B. Hess sold 90,476 shares of Hess stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $142.47, for a total transaction of $12,890,115.72. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 223,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,791,753.09. The trade was a 28.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Geurt G. Schoonman sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.91, for a total value of $851,460.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 27,581 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,914,019.71. This represents a 17.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 314,370 shares of company stock worth $45,856,309 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 9.76% of the company’s stock.

Hess Stock Performance

NYSE HES opened at $145.35 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $139.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $142.38. Hess Co. has a 52-week low of $123.79 and a 52-week high of $163.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 1.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.94 and a beta of 1.15.

Hess (NYSE:HES) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The oil and gas producer reported $2.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.88 by $0.26. Hess had a return on equity of 27.41% and a net margin of 20.58%. The firm had revenue of $3.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.96 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.64 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Hess Co. will post 9.72 EPS for the current year.

Hess Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were given a $0.50 dividend. This is a boost from Hess’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. Hess’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.31%.

About Hess

Hess Corporation, an exploration and production company, explores, develops, produces, purchases, transports, and sells crude oil, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and natural gas. The company operates in two segments, Exploration and Production, and Midstream. It conducts production operations primarily in the United States, Guyana, the Malaysia/Thailand Joint Development Area, and Malaysia; and exploration activities principally offshore Guyana, the U.S.