Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) Stock Price Up 0.4% Following Analyst Upgrade

Exxon Mobil Co. (NYSE:XOM) was up 0.4% on Monday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock from $135.00 to $136.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Exxon Mobil traded as high as $116.75 and last traded at $116.27. Approximately 2,322,740 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 86% from the average daily volume of 16,752,924 shares. The stock had previously closed at $115.82.

XOM has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price objective on Exxon Mobil from $139.00 to $138.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Redburn Atlantic restated a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price target (up previously from $119.00) on shares of Exxon Mobil in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Evercore ISI upgraded Exxon Mobil to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $135.00 price target on shares of Exxon Mobil in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Wolfe Research started coverage on Exxon Mobil in a report on Thursday, July 18th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $146.00 price target for the company. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Exxon Mobil currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $134.75.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Exxon Mobil

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Exxon Mobil by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 388,543,396 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $38,846,569,000 after purchasing an additional 1,269,495 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in Exxon Mobil by 6.3% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 45,161,783 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $5,249,607,000 after purchasing an additional 2,676,652 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in shares of Exxon Mobil by 11.3% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 40,312,338 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $4,640,756,000 after acquiring an additional 4,080,716 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Exxon Mobil by 16.9% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 36,794,077 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $4,235,972,000 after acquiring an additional 5,330,887 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in shares of Exxon Mobil by 19.3% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 32,308,002 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $3,719,296,000 after acquiring an additional 5,235,607 shares during the period. 61.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Exxon Mobil Price Performance

The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $115.93 and a 200-day moving average price of $115.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $473.04 billion, a PE ratio of 14.70, a P/E/G ratio of 4.86 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.36.

Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The oil and gas company reported $2.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.04 by $0.10. Exxon Mobil had a return on equity of 16.07% and a net margin of 9.73%. The business had revenue of $93.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $90.09 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.94 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Exxon Mobil Co. will post 8.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Exxon Mobil Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 15th were paid a dividend of $0.95 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $3.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.17%. Exxon Mobil’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.57%.

About Exxon Mobil

Exxon Mobil Corporation engages in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas in the United States and internationally. It operates through Upstream, Energy Products, Chemical Products, and Specialty Products segments. The Upstream segment explores for and produces crude oil and natural gas.