Imperial Oil (NYSEAMERICAN:IMO) Downgraded by StockNews.com to Hold

StockNews.com cut shares of Imperial Oil (NYSEAMERICAN:IMO) (TSE:IMO) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on IMO. Raymond James raised Imperial Oil to a hold rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 28th. Wolfe Research began coverage on Imperial Oil in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. They set an outperform rating and a $108.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their price target on Imperial Oil from $111.00 to $110.00 and set a sector outperform rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $99.50.

Imperial Oil Stock Down 1.5 %

Shares of IMO opened at $75.23 on Wednesday. Imperial Oil has a 52-week low of $52.97 and a 52-week high of $77.70. The company has a market capitalization of $40.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.79 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Imperial Oil (NYSEAMERICAN:IMO) (TSE:IMO) last announced its earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The energy company reported $1.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.11. Imperial Oil had a return on equity of 20.76% and a net margin of 9.46%. The company had revenue of $9.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.50 billion. Equities analysts forecast that Imperial Oil will post 6.22 EPS for the current year.

Imperial Oil Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be given a dividend of $0.4336 per share. This represents a $1.73 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.31%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 4th. Imperial Oil’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.59%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. RFP Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Imperial Oil during the 2nd quarter worth $25,000. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Imperial Oil by 84.0% in the first quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 493 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp bought a new position in shares of Imperial Oil in the fourth quarter worth $44,000. Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in shares of Imperial Oil by 938.5% in the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 810 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 732 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Imperial Oil in the first quarter worth $46,000. 20.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Imperial Oil

Imperial Oil Limited engages in exploration, production, and sale of crude oil and natural gas in Canada. The company operates through three segments: Upstream, Downstream and Chemical segments. The Upstream segment explores and produces crude oil, natural gas, synthetic crude oil, and bitumen. The Downstream segment transports and refines crude oil, blends refined products, and distributes and markets of refined products.