ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) Price Target Increased to $149.00 by Analysts at Wells Fargo & Company

ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) had its target price boosted by Wells Fargo & Company from $141.00 to $149.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the energy producer’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Johnson Rice cut ConocoPhillips from an accumulate rating to a hold rating in a report on Thursday, December 14th. Piper Sandler cut their price target on ConocoPhillips from $139.00 to $133.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 14th. Barclays started coverage on ConocoPhillips in a research note on Wednesday. They issued an overweight rating and a $158.00 price objective for the company. Raymond James lowered their price objective on ConocoPhillips from $140.00 to $137.00 and set a strong-buy rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on ConocoPhillips from $138.00 to $143.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $139.71.

ConocoPhillips Stock Performance

NYSE:COP opened at $132.82 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. ConocoPhillips has a 12-month low of $95.70 and a 12-month high of $134.02. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $117.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $116.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $156.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.24.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The energy producer reported $2.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.08 by $0.32. The business had revenue of $15.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.47 billion. ConocoPhillips had a return on equity of 22.08% and a net margin of 18.71%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that ConocoPhillips will post 9.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ConocoPhillips Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 19th were given a dividend of $0.78 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 15th. This is a positive change from ConocoPhillips’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.58. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.35%. ConocoPhillips’s payout ratio is 25.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling at ConocoPhillips

In other ConocoPhillips news, VP Christopher P. Delk sold 8,505 shares of ConocoPhillips stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $112.06, for a total transaction of $953,070.30. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other ConocoPhillips news, VP Christopher P. Delk sold 8,505 shares of ConocoPhillips stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $112.06, for a total transaction of $953,070.30. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Heather G. Hrap sold 4,548 shares of ConocoPhillips stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.55, for a total value of $502,781.40. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 2,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $293,399.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 700,775 shares of company stock valued at $87,615,169 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in ConocoPhillips by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 27,672,104 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $3,211,901,000 after purchasing an additional 108,956 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in ConocoPhillips by 24.9% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 23,712,617 shares of the energy producer’s stock worth $2,752,325,000 after buying an additional 4,726,952 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in ConocoPhillips by 26.6% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,647,723 shares of the energy producer’s stock worth $1,964,432,000 after buying an additional 3,497,750 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in ConocoPhillips by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 12,486,871 shares of the energy producer’s stock worth $1,495,927,000 after buying an additional 386,276 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in ConocoPhillips by 10.6% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 12,028,061 shares of the energy producer’s stock worth $1,440,962,000 after buying an additional 1,152,907 shares in the last quarter. 82.36% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About ConocoPhillips

ConocoPhillips explores for, produces, transports, and markets crude oil, bitumen, natural gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and natural gas liquids in the United States, Canada, China, Libya, Malaysia, Norway, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company's portfolio includes unconventional plays in North America; conventional assets in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia; global LNG developments; oil sands assets in Canada; and an inventory of global exploration prospects.