Fifth Third Bancorp Sells 8,863 Shares of ConocoPhillips $COP

Fifth Third Bancorp cut its position in ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 374,399 shares of the energy producer’s stock after selling 8,863 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp’s holdings in ConocoPhillips were worth $35,414,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Howard Hughes Medical Institute bought a new stake in ConocoPhillips in the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. Cloud Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of ConocoPhillips in the third quarter worth about $26,000. Bogart Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of ConocoPhillips by 136.8% in the second quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 315 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the period. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of ConocoPhillips by 58.0% during the 3rd quarter. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 316 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas bought a new position in ConocoPhillips in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Institutional investors own 82.36% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on COP. Johnson Rice cut shares of ConocoPhillips from an “accumulate” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $108.00 to $105.00 in a report on Friday, December 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price objective on ConocoPhillips from $116.00 to $98.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 5th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of ConocoPhillips in a report on Monday, December 29th. Susquehanna upped their price target on ConocoPhillips from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Bank of America restated an “underperform” rating and issued a $102.00 price objective on shares of ConocoPhillips in a research report on Friday, January 16th. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $115.54.

ConocoPhillips Stock Performance

NYSE:COP opened at $111.51 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $137.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.59 and a beta of 0.32. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $98.71 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $94.30. ConocoPhillips has a twelve month low of $79.88 and a twelve month high of $112.07.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The energy producer reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.23 by ($0.21). The company had revenue of $13.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.35 billion. ConocoPhillips had a return on equity of 11.90% and a net margin of 12.98%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.98 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that ConocoPhillips will post 8.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ConocoPhillips Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 18th will be given a dividend of $0.84 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 18th. This represents a $3.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.0%. ConocoPhillips’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 53.00%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Michael Lance sold 500,708 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.50, for a total value of $46,315,490.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 325,972 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,152,410. This represents a 60.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

ConocoPhillips Profile

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) is a Houston-based international energy company focused on exploration and production of oil and natural gas. Formed in 2002 through the merger of Conoco Inc and Phillips Petroleum Company, the firm operates as an independent upstream company that explores for, develops and produces crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids across a portfolio of global assets.

The company’s activities span conventional and unconventional resources and include onshore and offshore operations in multiple regions around the world.