Imperial Oil Limited (NYSEAMERICAN:IMO) Given Average Recommendation of “Reduce” by Analysts

Imperial Oil Limited (NYSEAMERICAN:IMO) (TSE:IMO) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” from the eight research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and four have assigned a hold rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $116.00.

IMO has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada downgraded Imperial Oil from a “sector perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $116.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Zacks Research downgraded Imperial Oil from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, TD Securities reiterated a “sell” rating on shares of Imperial Oil in a report on Wednesday, May 13th.

Imperial Oil Price Performance

Shares of IMO opened at $112.55 on Friday. Imperial Oil has a 1 year low of $77.20 and a 1 year high of $139.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The company has a market capitalization of $54.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.54 and a beta of 0.43. The business has a 50-day moving average of $126.22 and a 200-day moving average of $113.91.

Imperial Oil Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 4th will be issued a $0.87 dividend. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 4th. Imperial Oil’s payout ratio is presently 38.24%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Imperial Oil

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Argent Trust Co bought a new stake in Imperial Oil in the third quarter worth approximately $2,308,000. MAI Capital Management increased its holdings in Imperial Oil by 2,776.1% in the third quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 10,929 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $992,000 after purchasing an additional 10,549 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Imperial Oil by 13.9% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 84,287 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $7,648,000 after purchasing an additional 10,299 shares in the last quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd increased its holdings in Imperial Oil by 88.4% in the third quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 36,253 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $3,290,000 after purchasing an additional 17,011 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Imperial Oil by 1.5% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,710,473 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $608,459,000 after purchasing an additional 100,665 shares in the last quarter. 20.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Imperial Oil Company Profile

Imperial Oil (NYSEAMERICAN: IMO) is a Canadian integrated energy company involved in the exploration, production, refining and marketing of petroleum and petrochemical products. Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Imperial has operated in Canada for well over a century and is one of the country’s long-standing energy firms. The company is majority-owned by Exxon Mobil Corporation, which provides strategic and technical links to global upstream and downstream capabilities.

Imperial’s operations span upstream activities—exploration and production of crude oil, natural gas and oil-sands resources—and downstream operations including refining, manufacturing of fuels and lubricants, petrochemical products, and retail distribution.