Courier Capital LLC Has $2.70 Million Stock Holdings in Valero Energy Co. (NYSE:VLO)

Courier Capital LLC lessened its stake in shares of Valero Energy Co. (NYSE:VLO) by 0.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 15,829 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after selling 130 shares during the period. Courier Capital LLC’s holdings in Valero Energy were worth $2,702,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. grew its holdings in Valero Energy by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. now owns 4,981 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $648,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its position in shares of Valero Energy by 5.8% in the third quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,005,346 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $142,468,000 after acquiring an additional 55,351 shares during the period. Stiles Financial Services Inc boosted its position in shares of Valero Energy by 49.7% in the fourth quarter. Stiles Financial Services Inc now owns 7,615 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $991,000 after acquiring an additional 2,529 shares during the period. MGO One Seven LLC boosted its position in shares of Valero Energy by 198.8% in the fourth quarter. MGO One Seven LLC now owns 16,605 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $2,159,000 after acquiring an additional 11,047 shares during the period. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Valero Energy by 14.0% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,788,994 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $362,569,000 after acquiring an additional 342,218 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.69% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on VLO shares. Scotiabank increased their price objective on Valero Energy from $138.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. StockNews.com cut Valero Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, June 23rd. Bank of America raised Valero Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $156.00 to $210.00 in a research report on Friday, March 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Valero Energy from $177.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on Valero Energy from $160.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $172.00.

Valero Energy Trading Up 1.8 %

VLO stock traded up $2.72 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $156.76. The stock had a trading volume of 3,844,461 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,147,316. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $157.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $149.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The firm has a market cap of $51.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.76, a PEG ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.47. Valero Energy Co. has a twelve month low of $112.16 and a twelve month high of $184.79.

Valero Energy (NYSE:VLO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The oil and gas company reported $3.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.18 by $0.64. The company had revenue of $31.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $32.02 billion. Valero Energy had a return on equity of 24.82% and a net margin of 5.01%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $8.27 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Valero Energy Co. will post 16.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Valero Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 30th will be given a dividend of $1.07 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 30th. This represents a $4.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.73%. Valero Energy’s payout ratio is currently 21.20%.

Insider Transactions at Valero Energy

In other news, Director Kimberly S. Greene sold 720 shares of Valero Energy stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.12, for a total transaction of $113,846.40. Following the transaction, the director now owns 13,314 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,105,209.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

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.