California Resources Corporation (NYSE:CRC) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of California Resources Corporation (NYSE:CRC) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have issued a hold recommendation, ten have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $71.90.

CRC has been the topic of several analyst reports. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of California Resources from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Tuesday. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of California Resources from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of California Resources from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, May 25th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of California Resources from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $70.00 target price (down from $78.00) on shares of California Resources in a research note on Monday.

California Resources Price Performance

CRC opened at $52.15 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $56.95 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $57.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a current ratio of 0.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.63 billion, a P/E ratio of -10.03 and a beta of 0.92. California Resources has a 52-week low of $43.24 and a 52-week high of $71.98.

California Resources (NYSE:CRC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.88 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.88. California Resources had a positive return on equity of 10.12% and a negative net margin of 16.10%.The firm had revenue of $119.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $947.50 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.07 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 87.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that California Resources will post 4.47 EPS for the current year.

California Resources Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 29th were issued a $0.405 dividend. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 29th. California Resources’s payout ratio is -31.15%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other California Resources news, EVP Jay A. Bys sold 11,907 shares of California Resources stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.00, for a total value of $642,978.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 159,424 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,608,896. The trade was a 6.95% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders own 0.53% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. increased its position in California Resources by 363.6% in the fourth quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 561 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 440 shares during the last quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC bought a new position in California Resources during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Pinnacle Holdings LLC bought a new position in California Resources during the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of California Resources in the 1st quarter worth $29,000. Finally, FNY Investment Advisers LLC purchased a new position in shares of California Resources in the 3rd quarter worth $36,000. 97.79% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

California Resources Company Profile

California Resources Corporation (NYSE: CRC) is an independent exploration and production company focused exclusively on developing oil and natural gas assets in California. Headquartered in Newport Beach, the company engages in hydraulic fracturing, well completions, reservoir management and enhanced recovery operations to produce crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids.

CRC’s operations are concentrated in three core regions: the Los Angeles Basin, the Ventura Basin and the San Joaquin Basin.