California Resources Corporation (NYSE:CRC) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of California Resources Corporation (NYSE:CRC) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Three 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 company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $73.50.

Several research firms have issued reports on CRC. Barclays boosted their target price on California Resources from $72.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Zacks Research cut California Resources from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, May 25th. UBS Group set a $78.00 target price on California Resources and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Mizuho boosted their target price on California Resources from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded California Resources from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $74.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th.

California Resources Stock Performance

Shares of CRC stock opened at $55.22 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.90 billion, a PE ratio of -10.62 and a beta of 0.91. California Resources has a 52-week low of $43.24 and a 52-week high of $71.98. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $61.76 and its 200 day moving average price is $57.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

California Resources (NYSE:CRC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.88. California Resources had a positive return on equity of 10.12% and a negative net margin of 16.10%.The company had revenue of $119.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $947.50 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.07 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 87.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that California Resources will post 5.56 EPS for the current year.

California Resources Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 29th were given a dividend of $0.405 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 29th. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. California Resources’s payout ratio is presently -31.15%.

Insider Transactions at California Resources

In other California Resources news, EVP Jay A. Bys sold 11,907 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.68, for a total transaction of $734,423.76. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 171,331 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,567,696.08. The trade was a 6.50% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders own 0.53% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On California Resources

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of California Resources by 6.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,775,097 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $392,335,000 after acquiring an additional 529,814 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of California Resources by 17.8% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,181,806 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $186,968,000 after acquiring an additional 632,170 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of California Resources by 14.7% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,842,223 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $171,786,000 after acquiring an additional 491,751 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in shares of California Resources by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,006,430 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $159,882,000 after acquiring an additional 159,708 shares during the period. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of California Resources by 200.7% in the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,344,493 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $104,822,000 after acquiring an additional 1,564,866 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.79% of the company’s stock.

About California Resources

California Resources Corporation (NYSE: CRC) is an independent exploration and production company focused exclusively on developing oil and natural gas assets in California. Headquartered in Newport Beach, the company engages in hydraulic fracturing, well completions, reservoir management and enhanced recovery operations to produce crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids.

CRC’s operations are concentrated in three core regions: the Los Angeles Basin, the Ventura Basin and the San Joaquin Basin.