California State Teachers Retirement System Increases Holdings in ConocoPhillips $COP

California State Teachers Retirement System increased its position in ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) by 10,228.2% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 147,873,744 shares of the energy producer’s stock after acquiring an additional 146,441,998 shares during the quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System owned 0.12% of ConocoPhillips worth $15,372,954,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Tanager Wealth Management LLP raised its holdings in ConocoPhillips by 2.0% during the second quarter. Tanager Wealth Management LLP now owns 8,744 shares of the energy producer’s stock worth $909,000 after purchasing an additional 172 shares during the last quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in ConocoPhillips by 196.8% in the second quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC now owns 22,232 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $2,311,000 after purchasing an additional 14,741 shares during the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital increased its position in shares of ConocoPhillips by 11.6% in the second quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 19,508 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $2,127,000 after buying an additional 2,035 shares in the last quarter. Kintra Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of ConocoPhillips by 88.5% in the second quarter. Kintra Wealth LLC now owns 2,880 shares of the energy producer’s stock valued at $299,000 after buying an additional 1,352 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Guardian Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of ConocoPhillips by 3.9% during the 2nd quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 33,994 shares of the energy producer’s stock worth $3,534,000 after buying an additional 1,287 shares during the last quarter. 82.36% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on COP shares. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of ConocoPhillips from $147.00 to $151.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Freedom Capital upgraded shares of ConocoPhillips from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of ConocoPhillips from $144.00 to $138.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of ConocoPhillips from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on ConocoPhillips from $143.00 to $153.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $140.29.

ConocoPhillips Stock Performance

NYSE COP opened at $134.23 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 1.54 and a quick ratio of 1.39. ConocoPhillips has a 1-year low of $85.57 and a 1-year high of $137.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $161.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 0.13. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $120.75 and its 200-day simple moving average is $119.67.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The energy producer reported $3.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.90 by $0.34. ConocoPhillips had a net margin of 14.22% and a return on equity of 14.72%. The firm had revenue of $19.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.79 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.42 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 32.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that ConocoPhillips will post 10.54 EPS for the current year.

ConocoPhillips Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 17th were paid a $0.84 dividend. This represents a $3.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 17th. ConocoPhillips’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.44%.

Insider Activity at ConocoPhillips

In related news, SVP Andrew Lundquist sold 9,487 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.15, for a total value of $1,282,168.05. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 9,593 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,296,493.95. This represents a 49.72% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.09% of the company’s stock.

ConocoPhillips Company 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.