Emprise Bank Lowers Stock Position in ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP)

Emprise Bank lowered its position in ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) by 6.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 8,196 shares of the energy producer’s stock after selling 529 shares during the period. Emprise Bank’s holdings in ConocoPhillips were worth $813,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kieckhefer Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of ConocoPhillips in the fourth quarter valued at about $4,790,000. Capital Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in ConocoPhillips by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 17,629 shares of the energy producer’s stock worth $1,748,000 after buying an additional 311 shares during the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management increased its holdings in ConocoPhillips by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 8,855 shares of the energy producer’s stock worth $878,000 after buying an additional 383 shares during the last quarter. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH increased its holdings in ConocoPhillips by 11.9% during the fourth quarter. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH now owns 7,394 shares of the energy producer’s stock worth $733,000 after buying an additional 787 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fiduciary Alliance LLC increased its holdings in ConocoPhillips by 13.6% during the fourth quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC now owns 186,535 shares of the energy producer’s stock worth $18,499,000 after buying an additional 22,378 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.36% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on COP shares. Evercore ISI restated an “outperform” rating and set a $165.00 price objective 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 raised their price objective for the stock from $120.00 to $123.00 in a report on Thursday, December 5th. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of ConocoPhillips from $153.00 to $140.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of ConocoPhillips from $138.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of ConocoPhillips from $131.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $136.76.

ConocoPhillips Price Performance

ConocoPhillips stock traded up $2.09 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $104.01. 2,897,941 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,229,618. ConocoPhillips has a one year low of $94.23 and a one year high of $135.18. The stock has a market cap of $119.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 1.19. 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 fifty day moving average price of $104.39 and a 200-day moving average price of $107.70.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) last announced 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. ConocoPhillips had a net margin of 17.29% and a return on equity of 19.53%. The business had revenue of $13.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.97 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.16 earnings per share. ConocoPhillips’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that ConocoPhillips will post 7.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ConocoPhillips Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 11th were given a dividend of $0.78 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This is a positive change from ConocoPhillips’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.58. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.00%. ConocoPhillips’s payout ratio is presently 37.10%.

Insider Buying and Selling at ConocoPhillips

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

ConocoPhillips Company Profile

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.