First United Bank & Trust Sells 815 Shares of Valero Energy Co. (NYSE:VLO)

First United Bank & Trust lessened its holdings in shares of Valero Energy Co. (NYSE:VLO) by 9.1% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,168 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after selling 815 shares during the quarter. First United Bank & Trust’s holdings in Valero Energy were worth $1,103,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Petredis Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Valero Energy by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Petredis Investment Advisors LLC now owns 49,618 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $6,700,000 after buying an additional 138 shares in the last quarter. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC increased its stake in Valero Energy by 22.3% in the 3rd quarter. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC now owns 1,866 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $257,000 after purchasing an additional 340 shares during the period. Zhang Financial LLC increased its stake in Valero Energy by 10.5% in the 3rd quarter. Zhang Financial LLC now owns 1,826 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $247,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares during the period. Creative Planning increased its stake in Valero Energy by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 84,573 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $11,420,000 after purchasing an additional 3,097 shares during the period. Finally, Wesbanco Bank Inc. increased its stake in Valero Energy by 9.0% in the 3rd quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc. now owns 6,473 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $874,000 after purchasing an additional 535 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 78.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VLO has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Scotiabank reduced their target price on Valero Energy from $173.00 to $141.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. StockNews.com cut Valero Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on Valero Energy from $175.00 to $165.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Valero Energy in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $177.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Valero Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $172.00 to $165.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $162.60.

Valero Energy Stock Performance

NYSE VLO opened at $134.65 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $140.60 and a 200-day moving average price of $152.23. Valero Energy Co. has a twelve month low of $119.88 and a twelve month high of $184.79. The firm has a market cap of $43.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.75 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

Valero Energy (NYSE:VLO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The oil and gas company reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.60 by $0.11. Valero Energy had a return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 4.25%. The company had revenue of $34.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $32.97 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $5.40 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Valero Energy Co. will post 9.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Valero Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 1st were issued a $1.07 dividend. This represents a $4.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 1st. Valero Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.46%.

About Valero Energy

Valero Energy Corporation manufactures, markets, and sells petroleum-based and low-carbon liquid transportation fuels and petrochemical products in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Latin America, Mexico, Peru, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Refining, Renewable Diesel, and Ethanol.