Imperial Oil (NYSEAMERICAN:IMO) Cut to “Hold” at Zacks Research

Imperial Oil (NYSEAMERICAN:IMO) (TSE:IMO) was downgraded by analysts at Zacks Research from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on IMO. Imperial Capital reaffirmed a “sell” rating on shares of Imperial Oil in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Desjardins raised shares of Imperial Oil to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. TD Securities restated a “sell” rating on shares of Imperial Oil in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Scotiabank reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating on shares of Imperial Oil in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Strong Sell” and an average price target of $116.00.

Imperial Oil Price Performance

Shares of IMO stock opened at $133.28 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.38. Imperial Oil has a fifty-two week low of $82.45 and a fifty-two week high of $139.44. The firm has a market cap of $64.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.62 and a beta of 0.45. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $121.33 and its 200-day moving average price is $122.59.

Institutional Trading of Imperial Oil

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in shares of Imperial Oil by 30.4% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,840,645 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $348,500,000 after buying an additional 895,117 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in Imperial Oil by 47.9% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,867,363 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $161,172,000 after acquiring an additional 604,447 shares in the last quarter. UBS Group AG grew its stake in shares of Imperial Oil by 21.6% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,709,910 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $147,582,000 after acquiring an additional 303,286 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Imperial Oil by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,693,690 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $149,067,000 after acquiring an additional 78,321 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cibc World Market Inc. raised its position in shares of Imperial Oil by 8.4% in the 4th quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 1,243,738 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $107,459,000 after purchasing an additional 96,694 shares during the last quarter. 20.74% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Imperial Oil

Imperial Oil (NYSEAMERICAN: IMO) is a Canadian integrated energy company involved in the exploration, production, refining and marketing of petroleum and petrochemical products. Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Imperial has operated in Canada for well over a century and is one of the country’s long-standing energy firms. The company is majority-owned by Exxon Mobil Corporation, which provides strategic and technical links to global upstream and downstream capabilities.

Imperial’s operations span upstream activities—exploration and production of crude oil, natural gas and oil-sands resources—and downstream operations including refining, manufacturing of fuels and lubricants, petrochemical products, and retail distribution.