HF Advisory Group LLC Has $1.62 Million Stock Position in ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP)

HF Advisory Group LLC boosted its stake in ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) by 12.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 16,316 shares of the energy producer’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,812 shares during the period. HF Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in ConocoPhillips were worth $1,618,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of ConocoPhillips by 19.0% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 66,928,793 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $7,046,263,000 after purchasing an additional 10,663,093 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in ConocoPhillips by 20.2% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 31,161,897 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $3,280,725,000 after buying an additional 5,240,016 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its position in ConocoPhillips by 59.7% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 12,456,011 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $1,311,369,000 after acquiring an additional 4,656,040 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in ConocoPhillips by 5,422.3% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 4,587,729 shares of the energy producer’s stock worth $482,996,000 after acquiring an additional 4,504,653 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of ConocoPhillips by 401.5% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,423,611 shares of the energy producer’s stock worth $438,690,000 after acquiring an additional 3,541,504 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on COP. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on ConocoPhillips from $134.00 to $132.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of ConocoPhillips from $120.00 to $115.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Evercore ISI restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $165.00 price target on shares of ConocoPhillips in a report on Friday, December 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of ConocoPhillips from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $120.00 to $123.00 in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley started coverage on ConocoPhillips in a research report on Monday, December 16th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $128.00 target price for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $136.00.

ConocoPhillips Stock Up 0.1 %

ConocoPhillips stock opened at $105.76 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 1.30. The stock has a market cap of $121.72 billion, a PE ratio of 12.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 1.19. ConocoPhillips has a fifty-two week low of $94.23 and a fifty-two week high of $135.18. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $103.79 and its 200 day simple moving average is $107.47.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The energy producer reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $13.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.97 billion. ConocoPhillips had a return on equity of 19.53% and a net margin of 17.29%. ConocoPhillips’s quarterly revenue was down 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.16 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that ConocoPhillips will post 7.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ConocoPhillips Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were paid a dividend of $0.78 per share. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.95%. This is a boost from ConocoPhillips’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.58. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. ConocoPhillips’s payout ratio is presently 37.10%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Arjun N. Murti bought 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $95.87 per share, for a total transaction of $239,675.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 21,500 shares in the company, valued at $2,061,205. This represents a 13.16 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director R A. Walker purchased 10,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 17th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $97.80 per share, with a total value of $1,017,120.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 38,000 shares in the company, valued at $3,716,400. This trade represents a 37.68 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.34% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.