Mufg Securities Canada LTD. Cuts Holdings in Imperial Oil Limited $IMO

Mufg Securities Canada LTD. lowered its stake in Imperial Oil Limited (NYSEAMERICAN:IMO) (TSE:IMO) by 4.6% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 212,062 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 10,306 shares during the quarter. Mufg Securities Canada LTD.’s holdings in Imperial Oil were worth $23,775,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. UBS Group AG grew its position in shares of Imperial Oil by 566.9% in the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,406,624 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $127,637,000 after buying an additional 1,195,698 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in Imperial Oil by 30.4% in the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,840,645 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $348,500,000 after acquiring an additional 895,117 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership purchased a new position in shares of Imperial Oil during the first quarter worth about $93,097,000. Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of Imperial Oil by 47.9% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,867,363 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $161,172,000 after purchasing an additional 604,447 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Imperial Oil during the second quarter worth about $24,051,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 20.74% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

IMO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Zacks Research cut Imperial Oil from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. TD Securities reaffirmed a “sell” rating on shares of Imperial Oil in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Imperial Capital reissued a “sell” rating on shares of Imperial Oil in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Desjardins upgraded shares of Imperial Oil to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Scotiabank reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating on shares of Imperial Oil in a 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Strong Sell” and a consensus price target of $116.00.

Imperial Oil Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of Imperial Oil stock opened at $131.34 on Tuesday. Imperial Oil Limited has a 52-week low of $83.27 and a 52-week high of $139.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $124.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $124.79. The firm has a market cap of $63.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.30 and a beta of 0.45.

Imperial Oil (NYSEAMERICAN:IMO) (TSE:IMO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 31st. The energy company reported $4.52 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.99 by $1.53. Imperial Oil had a net margin of 8.03% and a return on equity of 22.28%. The firm had revenue of $11.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.92 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.86 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 43.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Imperial Oil Limited will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Imperial Oil Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 4th will be issued a $0.87 dividend. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. Imperial Oil’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.24%.

Imperial Oil Company Profile

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.