ENI (NYSE:E) Reaches New 1-Year High – Time to Buy?

Eni SpA (NYSE:E) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $39.62 and last traded at $39.52, with a volume of 27681 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $38.78.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Zacks Research cut ENI from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday. HSBC lowered shares of ENI from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of ENI from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. UBS Group raised shares of ENI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of ENI from an “overweight” rating to an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $34.60.

ENI Price Performance

The company’s 50-day moving average price is $37.73 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $35.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 1.16 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The company has a market capitalization of $65.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.57 and a beta of 0.61.

ENI (NYSE:E) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 24th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.73 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $24.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.88 billion. ENI had a net margin of 3.20% and a return on equity of 8.53%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Eni SpA will post 3.74 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ENI

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its stake in ENI by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 3,113,710 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $108,824,000 after purchasing an additional 192,646 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in ENI by 33.2% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 636,891 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $22,259,000 after purchasing an additional 158,699 shares in the last quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC bought a new position in ENI in the third quarter valued at about $5,106,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of ENI during the second quarter worth about $3,982,000. Finally, Trek Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of ENI in the third quarter valued at approximately $4,128,000. 1.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About ENI

ENI S.p.A. is an integrated energy company headquartered in Rome, Italy, founded in 1953 as a state-established hydrocarbon entity and later transformed into a publicly traded multinational. The firm’s activities span the full hydrocarbon value chain and extend into power generation and low?carbon energy solutions. ENI maintains a long history in exploration and production, engineering and project development, and downstream operations that include refining, petrochemicals and retail fuel distribution.

Core businesses include upstream exploration and production of oil and natural gas, midstream and liquefied natural gas (LNG) handling, and downstream refining and marketing of petroleum products and lubricants.