Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at Seaport Research Partners

Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN) was upgraded by investment analysts at Seaport Research Partners to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Zacks reports.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Devon Energy from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Argus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $45.85 target price on shares of Devon Energy in a research note on Monday, August 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Devon Energy from $62.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Devon Energy from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 25th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Devon Energy from $65.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $59.23.

Devon Energy Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of Devon Energy stock opened at $48.73 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The firm has a market cap of $53.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.37. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $44.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $45.77. Devon Energy has a fifty-two week low of $31.47 and a fifty-two week high of $52.71.

Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The energy company reported $1.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.40 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $7.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.01 billion. Devon Energy had a return on equity of 14.93% and a net margin of 16.67%.Devon Energy’s revenue was up 73.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.84 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Devon Energy will post 5.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Devon Energy

In related news, SVP Andrea Alexander sold 18,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.74, for a total transaction of $841,320.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 138,529 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,474,845.46. The trade was a 11.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 4.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Devon Energy

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of DVN. Range Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in Devon Energy in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $323,000. Corient Private Wealth LP boosted its position in Devon Energy by 62.1% during the second quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 214,019 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $8,843,000 after purchasing an additional 81,997 shares during the period. Amundi grew its holdings in Devon Energy by 100.6% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 4,854,380 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $200,583,000 after purchasing an additional 2,433,896 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Devon Energy by 240.0% in the second quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 493,197 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $20,379,000 after purchasing an additional 348,120 shares during the period. Finally, VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al bought a new position in shares of Devon Energy in the second quarter valued at approximately $33,504,000. 69.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Devon Energy

Devon Energy Corporation (NYSE: DVN) is an independent oil and gas exploration and production company headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The company focuses on the exploration, development, production and marketing of hydrocarbons, including crude oil, natural gas liquids (NGLs) and natural gas. Devon operates as an upstream energy company that acquires, evaluates and develops onshore resource plays using a combination of drilling, completion and production optimization techniques.

Core business activities include identifying and developing energy reserves, operating well programs and managing reservoir performance to generate production and cash flow.