World Investment Advisors Purchases Shares of 10,971 Canadian Natural Resources Limited $CNQ

World Investment Advisors acquired a new stake in Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE:CNQ) (TSE:CNQ) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 10,971 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock, valued at approximately $371,000.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,616,219 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $51,654,000 after acquiring an additional 43,356 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,716,038 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $54,883,000 after acquiring an additional 33,609 shares in the last quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 6,758,445 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $228,729,000 after acquiring an additional 315,460 shares in the last quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 9.1% in the 3rd quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,718,220 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $54,946,000 after acquiring an additional 143,550 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SCP Investment LP bought a new position in shares of Canadian Natural Resources in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,144,000. Institutional investors own 74.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CNQ has been the subject of several analyst reports. Zacks Research upgraded Canadian Natural Resources from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Weiss Ratings cut Canadian Natural Resources from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Canadian Natural Resources from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, January 31st. ATB Cormark Capital Markets cut Canadian Natural Resources from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Finally, Raymond James Financial upgraded Canadian Natural Resources from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Canadian Natural Resources presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $57.00.

Canadian Natural Resources Trading Down 1.3%

Shares of NYSE:CNQ opened at $48.79 on Thursday. Canadian Natural Resources Limited has a 12-month low of $29.30 and a 12-month high of $51.34. The stock has a market cap of $101.49 billion, a PE ratio of 14.56 and a beta of 0.47. The business has a 50 day moving average of $47.15 and a 200-day moving average of $39.76. The company has a quick ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37.

Canadian Natural Resources (NYSE:CNQ) (TSE:CNQ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.11. Canadian Natural Resources had a return on equity of 17.49% and a net margin of 22.04%.The company had revenue of $7.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.57 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.16 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Canadian Natural Resources Limited will post 4.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Canadian Natural Resources Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 7th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 23rd will be issued a dividend of $0.625 per share. This represents a $2.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.1%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 23rd. Canadian Natural Resources’s payout ratio is currently 54.63%.

About Canadian Natural Resources

Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE: CNQ) is a Calgary-based independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company. Established in the early 1970s and publicly listed in Canada and the United States, the company is principally engaged in the exploration, development, production, and marketing of crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids. Its asset base spans conventional and unconventional reservoirs and includes oil sands mining and in-situ thermal projects, midstream processing and upgrading capacity, and related field operations.

The company’s operations are concentrated in Western Canada, where it develops heavy crude, bitumen from oil sands and conventional light crude and natural gas resources.