Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) Trading 0.7% Higher on Analyst Upgrade

Exxon Mobil Co. (NYSE:XOM) traded up 0.7% on Monday after BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on the stock from $127.00 to $130.00. BMO Capital Markets currently has a market perform rating on the stock. Exxon Mobil traded as high as $126.34 and last traded at $125.70. 4,386,577 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 74% from the average session volume of 16,795,404 shares. The stock had previously closed at $124.83.

Several other research analysts have also issued reports on the company. Redburn Atlantic reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 target price (up from $119.00) on shares of Exxon Mobil in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Barclays reduced their target price on Exxon Mobil from $142.00 to $137.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $135.00 target price on shares of Exxon Mobil in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Exxon Mobil from $145.00 to $142.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their target price on Exxon Mobil from $139.00 to $138.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $134.18.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Exxon Mobil by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 388,543,396 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $38,846,569,000 after buying an additional 1,269,495 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in Exxon Mobil by 6.3% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 45,161,783 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $5,249,607,000 after buying an additional 2,676,652 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Exxon Mobil by 11.3% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 40,312,338 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $4,640,756,000 after buying an additional 4,080,716 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Exxon Mobil by 16.9% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 36,794,077 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $4,235,972,000 after buying an additional 5,330,887 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in Exxon Mobil by 19.3% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 32,308,002 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $3,719,296,000 after buying an additional 5,235,607 shares during the last quarter. 61.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Exxon Mobil Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $494.30 billion, a PE ratio of 15.41, a P/E/G ratio of 4.86 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a current ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $116.31 and a 200-day simple moving average of $116.02.

Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) last posted its earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The oil and gas company reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.04 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $93.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $90.09 billion. Exxon Mobil had a return on equity of 16.07% and a net margin of 9.73%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.94 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Exxon Mobil Co. will post 8.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Exxon Mobil Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were paid a dividend of $0.95 per share. This represents a $3.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.03%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 15th. Exxon Mobil’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.57%.

About Exxon Mobil

Exxon Mobil Corporation engages in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas in the United States and internationally. It operates through Upstream, Energy Products, Chemical Products, and Specialty Products segments. The Upstream segment explores for and produces crude oil and natural gas.