Washington Trust Bank Sells 20,594 Shares of ConocoPhillips $COP

Washington Trust Bank lowered its holdings in shares of ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) by 30.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 46,907 shares of the energy producer’s stock after selling 20,594 shares during the quarter. Washington Trust Bank’s holdings in ConocoPhillips were worth $4,391,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC raised its holdings in shares of ConocoPhillips by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 2,570 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $241,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC raised its holdings in shares of ConocoPhillips by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC now owns 8,018 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $751,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares in the last quarter. Chesapeake Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of ConocoPhillips by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Chesapeake Wealth Management now owns 7,160 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $670,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. Oregon Pacific Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of ConocoPhillips by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Oregon Pacific Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,414 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $226,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of ConocoPhillips by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 2,231 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $209,000 after purchasing an additional 109 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.36% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Michael Lance sold 506,800 shares of ConocoPhillips stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.26, for a total transaction of $64,495,368.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 6,835 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $869,822.10. This trade represents a 98.67% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Andrew D. Lundquist sold 34,500 shares of ConocoPhillips stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.68, for a total transaction of $4,128,960.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 17,469 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,090,689.92. This represents a 66.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 734,891 shares of company stock worth $93,345,692 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.09% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on COP shares. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on shares of ConocoPhillips from $118.00 to $152.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of ConocoPhillips from $108.00 to $149.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of ConocoPhillips from $121.00 to $136.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. Freedom Capital downgraded shares of ConocoPhillips from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of ConocoPhillips from $130.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have given a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $133.04.

ConocoPhillips Price Performance

Shares of ConocoPhillips stock opened at $115.55 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.29. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $122.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $105.51. ConocoPhillips has a twelve month low of $84.28 and a twelve month high of $135.87. The firm has a market cap of $140.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.14.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The energy producer reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.72 by $0.17. ConocoPhillips had a net margin of 12.10% and a return on equity of 11.39%. The business had revenue of $15.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.62 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.09 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that ConocoPhillips will post 9.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ConocoPhillips Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 1st. Investors of record on Monday, May 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.84 per share. This represents a $3.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 11th. ConocoPhillips’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 57.05%.

ConocoPhillips Profile

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) is a Houston-based international energy company focused on exploration and production of oil and natural gas. Formed in 2002 through the merger of Conoco Inc and Phillips Petroleum Company, the firm operates as an independent upstream company that explores for, develops and produces crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids across a portfolio of global assets.

The company’s activities span conventional and unconventional resources and include onshore and offshore operations in multiple regions around the world.