Imperial Oil (TSE:IMO) Stock Price Crosses Below 200-Day Moving Average – Should You Sell?

Shares of Imperial Oil Limited (TSE:IMO) (NYSEMKT:IMO) crossed below its 200-day moving average during trading on Monday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of C$121.97 and traded as low as C$116.48. Imperial Oil shares last traded at C$117.62, with a volume of 672,091 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on IMO. BMO Capital Markets cut shares of Imperial Oil from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price target for the company from C$132.00 to C$129.00 in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Imperial Oil from C$115.00 to C$117.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. TD Securities cut their target price on Imperial Oil from C$107.00 to C$106.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 16th. Raymond James Financial reduced their price target on Imperial Oil from C$111.00 to C$110.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 16th. Finally, Cibc World Mkts cut Imperial Oil from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and six have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of C$112.30.

Imperial Oil Stock Performance

The company’s 50-day moving average price is C$128.46 and its 200 day moving average price is C$121.97. The stock has a market capitalization of C$58.44 billion, a PE ratio of 15.02, a PEG ratio of 0.21 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 18.04, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 1.44.

Imperial Oil (TSE:IMO) (NYSEMKT:IMO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 31st. The company reported C$2.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Imperial Oil had a net margin of 10.00% and a return on equity of 21.23%. The company had revenue of C$11.99 billion during the quarter. On average, equities research analysts expect that Imperial Oil Limited will post 8.6164609 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Imperial Oil Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 1st will be given a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 3rd. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Imperial Oil’s dividend payout ratio is currently 35.25%.

About Imperial Oil

Imperial Oil is one of Canada’s largest integrated oil companies, focusing on upstream operations, petroleum refining operations, and the marketing of petroleum products. Production averaged 398 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2020. The company estimates that it holds 5.2 billion boe of proved and probable crude oil and natural gas reserves. Imperial remains the largest refiner of petroleum products in Canada, operating three refineries with a combined processing capacity of 421 mboe/d.