Investors Buy Large Volume of Cenovus Energy Call Options (NYSE:CVE)

Cenovus Energy Inc. (NYSE:CVE) (TSE:CVE) was the target of unusually large options trading on Monday. Investors purchased 11,763 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 74% compared to the typical daily volume of 6,753 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CVE has been the topic of several recent research reports. StockNews.com lowered Cenovus Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 27th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Cenovus Energy from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, Raymond James raised Cenovus Energy to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 28th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $29.00.

Cenovus Energy Stock Performance

Shares of Cenovus Energy stock opened at $20.21 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $19.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $18.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $37.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.23 and a beta of 2.07. Cenovus Energy has a 12 month low of $14.69 and a 12 month high of $21.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.70, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25.

Cenovus Energy (NYSE:CVE) (TSE:CVE) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The oil and gas company reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $9.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.98 billion. Cenovus Energy had a return on equity of 16.53% and a net margin of 8.73%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Cenovus Energy will post 2.04 EPS for the current year.

Cenovus Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a monthly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 31st. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th were paid a dividend of $0.0981 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $1.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.82%. Cenovus Energy’s payout ratio is 28.89%.

Institutional Trading of Cenovus Energy

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CVE. First Hawaiian Bank grew its position in Cenovus Energy by 1.6% during the second quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 69,273 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $1,362,000 after buying an additional 1,071 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its position in Cenovus Energy by 47.5% during the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 685,761 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $13,536,000 after buying an additional 220,761 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners grew its position in Cenovus Energy by 29.0% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 37,540,511 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $750,435,000 after buying an additional 8,438,979 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC grew its position in Cenovus Energy by 5.2% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 16,347 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $327,000 after buying an additional 801 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Atria Investments Inc purchased a new position in Cenovus Energy during the first quarter worth about $1,482,000. 51.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Cenovus Energy

Cenovus Energy Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, produces, refines, transports, and markets crude oil, natural gas, and refined petroleum products in Canada and internationally. The company operates through Oil Sands, Conventional, Offshore, Canadian Refining, and U.S. Refining segments.