Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. Trims Stake in Chevron Co. (NYSE:CVX)

Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Chevron Co. (NYSE:CVX) by 1.9% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 18,162 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after selling 344 shares during the period. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc.’s holdings in Chevron were worth $2,631,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC grew its position in Chevron by 67.2% during the fourth quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC now owns 25,372 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $3,675,000 after buying an additional 10,200 shares in the last quarter. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Chevron during the fourth quarter worth about $46,000. Sprott Inc. purchased a new position in Chevron during the fourth quarter worth about $432,000. Pinnacle West Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Chevron by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Pinnacle West Asset Management Inc. now owns 15,230 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $2,206,000 after buying an additional 575 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Longbow Finance SA grew its position in Chevron by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Longbow Finance SA now owns 27,056 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $3,919,000 after buying an additional 1,281 shares in the last quarter. 72.42% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on CVX shares. Raymond James reduced their target price on Chevron from $180.00 to $175.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $175.00 price objective on shares of Chevron in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Barclays cut their price objective on Chevron from $174.00 to $171.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. DZ Bank upgraded Chevron from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $170.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Chevron from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $145.00 to $185.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $174.13.

Chevron Trading Down 1.0 %

NYSE CVX opened at $156.38 on Wednesday. Chevron Co. has a 1-year low of $135.37 and a 1-year high of $167.11. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $152.30 and a 200-day moving average of $151.28. The firm has a market cap of $281.04 billion, a PE ratio of 16.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.11.

Chevron (NYSE:CVX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The oil and gas company reported $2.06 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.42 by ($0.36). Chevron had a net margin of 8.71% and a return on equity of 11.44%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.45 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Chevron Co. will post 10.79 EPS for the current year.

Chevron Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of $1.71 per share. This is a positive change from Chevron’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.63. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $6.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.37%. Chevron’s dividend payout ratio is presently 70.37%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Chevron

In other Chevron news, VP Jeff B. Gustavson sold 9,325 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $152.50, for a total transaction of $1,422,062.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 1,057 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $161,192.50. This represents a 89.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Chevron

Chevron Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in the integrated energy and chemicals operations in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Upstream and Downstream. The Upstream segment is involved in the exploration, development, production, and transportation of crude oil and natural gas; processing, liquefaction, transportation, and regasification of liquefied natural gas; transportation of crude oil through pipelines; transportation, storage, and marketing of natural gas; and carbon capture and storage, as well as a gas-to-liquids plant.