Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Takes $2.41 Million Position in California Resources Corporation $CRC

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in shares of California Resources Corporation (NYSE:CRC) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 34,800 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock, valued at approximately $2,409,000.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in California Resources by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,775,097 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $392,335,000 after purchasing an additional 529,814 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of California Resources by 17.8% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,181,806 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $186,968,000 after purchasing an additional 632,170 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of California Resources by 14.7% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,842,223 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $171,786,000 after purchasing an additional 491,751 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in shares of California Resources by 5.6% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,006,430 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $159,882,000 after purchasing an additional 159,708 shares during the period. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of California Resources by 200.7% in the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,344,493 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $104,822,000 after purchasing an additional 1,564,866 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.79% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of California Resources from $72.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of California Resources from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. UBS Group set a $78.00 price target on California Resources and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. Wall Street Zen lowered California Resources from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, Zacks Research cut California Resources from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, May 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $73.50.

California Resources Stock Performance

California Resources stock opened at $52.76 on Tuesday. California Resources Corporation has a 1-year low of $43.24 and a 1-year high of $71.98. The company has a current ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.68 billion, a PE ratio of -10.15 and a beta of 0.91. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $60.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $57.30.

California Resources (NYSE:CRC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.88 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.88. The firm had revenue of $119.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $947.50 million. California Resources had a negative net margin of 16.10% and a positive return on equity of 10.12%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 87.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.07 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that California Resources Corporation will post 5.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

California Resources Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 18th. Investors of record on Friday, May 29th were paid a dividend of $0.405 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 29th. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. California Resources’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -31.15%.

Insider Transactions at California Resources

In related news, EVP Jay A. Bys sold 11,907 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.68, for a total transaction of $734,423.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 171,331 shares in the company, valued at $10,567,696.08. The trade was a 6.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Corporate insiders own 0.53% 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.