Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC Increases Holdings in ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP)

Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC grew its holdings in shares of ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) by 14.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,309 shares of the energy producer’s stock after acquiring an additional 167 shares during the quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC’s holdings in ConocoPhillips were worth $130,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in COP. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of ConocoPhillips by 19.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 66,928,793 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $7,046,263,000 after buying an additional 10,663,093 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of ConocoPhillips by 20.2% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 31,161,897 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $3,280,725,000 after buying an additional 5,240,016 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of ConocoPhillips by 59.7% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 12,456,011 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $1,311,369,000 after buying an additional 4,656,040 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of ConocoPhillips by 5,422.3% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 4,587,729 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $482,996,000 after buying an additional 4,504,653 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in ConocoPhillips by 401.5% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,423,611 shares of the energy producer’s stock worth $438,690,000 after purchasing an additional 3,541,504 shares during the period. 82.36% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on COP. Raymond James lowered shares of ConocoPhillips from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $157.00 to $124.00 in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of ConocoPhillips from $135.00 to $114.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Mizuho raised shares of ConocoPhillips from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $132.00 to $134.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Susquehanna increased their price objective on shares of ConocoPhillips from $144.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of ConocoPhillips from $137.00 to $135.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $133.47.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Arjun N. Murti bought 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $95.87 per share, for a total transaction of $239,675.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 21,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,061,205. The trade was a 13.16 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director R A. Walker bought 10,400 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 17th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $97.80 per share, with a total value of $1,017,120.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 38,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,716,400. This represents a 37.68 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

ConocoPhillips Price Performance

NYSE COP opened at $98.82 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.29. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $100.09 and its 200-day moving average price is $105.36. ConocoPhillips has a 52-week low of $94.23 and a 52-week high of $135.18. The company has a market cap of $125.73 billion, a PE ratio of 12.68, a P/E/G ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 1.18.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The energy producer reported $1.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.20. ConocoPhillips had a net margin of 16.23% and a return on equity of 17.26%. Sell-side analysts forecast that ConocoPhillips will post 8.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ConocoPhillips Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.78 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.16%. ConocoPhillips’s dividend payout ratio is presently 40.05%.

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.