Cenovus Energy Inc (NYSE:CVE) Shares Shorted: Short Interest Down 37.0% in September

Cenovus Energy Inc (NYSE:CVE) (TSE:CVE) saw a significant decrease in short interest in September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totaling 37,556,410 shares, a decrease of 37.0% from the September 15th total of 59,607,951 shares. Currently, 2.1% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 6,436,276 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.8 days.

Institutional Trading of Cenovus Energy

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Cenovus Energy by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC now owns 24,601 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $765,000 after acquiring an additional 584 shares during the last quarter. Penbrook Management LLC boosted its stake in Cenovus Energy by 42.9% during the 3rd quarter. Penbrook Management LLC now owns 42,700 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $1,327,000 after purchasing an additional 12,820 shares during the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. boosted its stake in Cenovus Energy by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 145,901 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $4,536,000 after purchasing an additional 801 shares during the last quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Cenovus Energy by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 9,696,020 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $305,599,000 after purchasing an additional 32,151 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Annex Advisory Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cenovus Energy by 11.8% in the 3rd quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC now owns 177,907 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $5,529,000 after purchasing an additional 18,823 shares in the last quarter. 51.19% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on CVE. Weiss Ratings raised Cenovus Energy from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 8th. Gerdes Energy Research upgraded shares of Cenovus Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Cenovus Energy from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 8th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Cenovus Energy in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Cenovus Energy in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $39.00.

Cenovus Energy Stock Up 3.1%

Shares of CVE traded up $0.98 on Friday, reaching $32.95. The stock had a trading volume of 7,498,810 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,430,596. The firm has a market capitalization of $59.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.68 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.63. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $31.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $29.08. Cenovus Energy has a 12-month low of $15.63 and a 12-month high of $34.16.

Cenovus Energy (NYSE:CVE) (TSE:CVE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The oil and gas company reported $1.11 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.11. The company had revenue of $14.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.87 billion. Cenovus Energy had a return on equity of 21.08% and a net margin of 12.37%. The firm’s revenue was up 47.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.45 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Cenovus Energy will post 4.12 EPS for the current year.

Cenovus Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 29th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 15th were issued a dividend of C$0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 15th. Cenovus Energy’s payout ratio is 24.62%.

About Cenovus Energy

Cenovus Energy Inc (NYSE:CVE) is an integrated Canadian energy company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. The company develops and produces crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids, with a significant focus on oil sands operations in Alberta. Its upstream activities include oil sands mining and in situ production, conventional oil and gas production, and the upgrading of heavy crude into synthetic crude oil.

Cenovus also operates in the downstream energy sector through crude oil refining, petroleum upgrading, marketing and distribution.