Empyrean Capital Partners LP Takes Position in California Resources Corporation $CRC

Empyrean Capital Partners LP acquired a new stake in shares of California Resources Corporation (NYSE:CRC) in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 48,000 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock, valued at approximately $3,323,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of CRC. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in California Resources by 6.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,775,097 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $392,335,000 after purchasing an additional 529,814 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of California Resources by 17.8% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,181,806 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $186,968,000 after purchasing an additional 632,170 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of California Resources by 14.7% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,842,223 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $171,786,000 after purchasing an additional 491,751 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of California Resources by 200.7% in the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,344,493 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $104,822,000 after purchasing an additional 1,564,866 shares during the period. Finally, Sourcerock Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of California Resources by 63.8% in the second quarter. Sourcerock Group LLC now owns 2,000,649 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $91,370,000 after purchasing an additional 779,280 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 97.79% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CRC. Barclays increased their price objective on California Resources from $72.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Stephens set a $85.00 target price on California Resources and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Zacks Research cut California Resources from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $70.00 price target (down from $78.00) on shares of California Resources in a research report on Monday, July 13th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price objective on California Resources from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $73.09.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Jay A. Bys sold 11,907 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.00, for a total value of $642,978.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 159,424 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,608,896. This represents a 6.95% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders own 0.53% of the company’s stock.

California Resources Stock Performance

California Resources stock opened at $50.80 on Tuesday. California Resources Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $43.24 and a fifty-two week high of $71.98. 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 cap of $4.51 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.77 and a beta of 0.92. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $55.94 and its 200-day moving average price is $58.31.

California Resources (NYSE:CRC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.88. The company had revenue of $119.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $947.50 million. California Resources had a negative net margin of 16.10% and a positive return on equity of 10.12%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 87.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.07 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that California Resources Corporation will post 4.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

California Resources Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 29th were paid a dividend of $0.405 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 29th. This represents a $1.62 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.2%. California Resources’s payout ratio is -31.15%.

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.