Royal Bank of Canada Reiterates “Sector Perform” Rating for Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM)

Royal Bank of Canada restated their sector perform rating on shares of Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has a $115.00 price target on the oil and gas company’s stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on XOM. Redburn Atlantic restated a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price objective (up from $119.00) on shares of Exxon Mobil in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Scotiabank raised shares of Exxon Mobil from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $129.00 to $145.00 in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Exxon Mobil from $142.00 to $140.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Exxon Mobil from $127.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price objective on Exxon Mobil from $128.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Exxon Mobil has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $129.84.

Exxon Mobil Stock Performance

XOM stock opened at $111.83 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $491.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.93, a P/E/G ratio of 4.70 and a beta of 0.89. Exxon Mobil has a 12-month low of $95.77 and a 12-month high of $126.34. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $119.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $116.40. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 1st. The oil and gas company reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.91 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $90.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.98 billion. Exxon Mobil had a net margin of 9.61% and a return on equity of 14.73%. Exxon Mobil’s quarterly revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.27 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Exxon Mobil will post 7.95 EPS for the current year.

Exxon Mobil Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were given a dividend of $0.99 per share. This is a positive change from Exxon Mobil’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.95. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $3.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.54%. Exxon Mobil’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.32%.

Institutional Trading of Exxon Mobil

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in XOM. Vertex Planning Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Exxon Mobil by 3.1% during the third quarter. Vertex Planning Partners LLC now owns 2,778 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $326,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the period. Etfidea LLC increased its position in Exxon Mobil by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. Etfidea LLC now owns 2,669 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $307,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. Bigelow Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Exxon Mobil by 0.6% during the second quarter. Bigelow Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,543 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $1,559,000 after buying an additional 86 shares in the last quarter. Integral Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Exxon Mobil by 2.1% during the second quarter. Integral Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 4,207 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $483,000 after buying an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in shares of Exxon Mobil by 15.2% in the second quarter. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 660 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $76,000 after acquiring an additional 87 shares during the period. 61.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.