Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) Trading 2.7% Higher – Still a Buy?

Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) shares rose 2.7% on Friday . The stock traded as high as $153.65 and last traded at $152.5460. Approximately 30,200,853 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 44% from the average daily volume of 21,038,309 shares. The stock had previously closed at $148.54.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

XOM has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America increased their price objective on Exxon Mobil from $129.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Exxon Mobil from $158.00 to $156.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of Exxon Mobil in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. BNP Paribas Exane cut shares of Exxon Mobil from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $125.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Scotiabank restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Exxon Mobil in a report on Friday, January 16th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $140.59.

Exxon Mobil Trading Up 2.7%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 1.15. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $134.92 and a 200-day moving average of $121.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $635.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 15.46 and a beta of 0.39.

Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 30th. The oil and gas company reported $1.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.63 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $80.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $77.98 billion. Exxon Mobil had a return on equity of 11.21% and a net margin of 8.68%.The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.67 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Exxon Mobil Corporation will post 7.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Exxon Mobil Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 12th will be paid a dividend of $1.03 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 12th. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. Exxon Mobil’s dividend payout ratio is currently 61.58%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Exxon Mobil news, VP Darrin L. Talley sold 3,230 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.18, for a total transaction of $481,851.40. Following the sale, the vice president owned 20,354 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,036,409.72. This trade represents a 13.70% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders have sold 14,230 shares of company stock worth $1,888,421 over the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Exxon Mobil

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in XOM. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Exxon Mobil by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 431,058,875 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $46,468,147,000 after acquiring an additional 1,111,231 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Exxon Mobil by 0.4% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 96,307,931 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $10,345,132,000 after purchasing an additional 342,967 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its holdings in Exxon Mobil by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 75,152,366 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $9,043,836,000 after buying an additional 1,457,560 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Exxon Mobil in the fourth quarter worth approximately $7,625,063,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in Exxon Mobil by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 46,605,353 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $5,608,488,000 after buying an additional 531,362 shares in the last quarter. 61.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Exxon Mobil

Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) is an integrated oil and gas company engaged in the exploration, production, refining, distribution and marketing of petroleum products and the manufacture and sale of petrochemicals. Its operations span the full energy value chain, including upstream exploration and development of crude oil and natural gas; midstream transportation and storage; and downstream refining, product distribution and retail. The company also produces a broad range of chemical products for industrial and consumer applications.

ExxonMobil markets fuels and lubricants under well-known brands such as Exxon, Mobil and Esso, and its Mobil 1 motor oil is a prominent consumer product.