Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 207,877 Shares of Chevron Co. (NYSE:CVX)

Principal Financial Group Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Chevron Co. (NYSE:CVX) by 6.6% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 2,923,106 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after selling 207,877 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Chevron were worth $430,486,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rational Advisors LLC bought a new position in Chevron in the 3rd quarter worth about $29,000. Anfield Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Chevron by 118.0% in the 2nd quarter. Anfield Capital Management LLC now owns 218 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 118 shares in the last quarter. Cyrus J. Lawrence LLC grew its stake in Chevron by 66.7% in the 2nd quarter. Cyrus J. Lawrence LLC now owns 250 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Krane Funds Advisors LLC bought a new position in Chevron in the 3rd quarter worth about $47,000. Finally, Livelsberger Financial Advisory bought a new position in Chevron in the 3rd quarter worth about $47,000. 72.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on CVX. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Chevron from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $183.00 to $167.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Chevron from $192.00 to $194.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Chevron in a report on Thursday, July 18th. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Chevron from $196.00 to $169.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, DZ Bank raised shares of Chevron from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $170.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $174.93.

Chevron Trading Up 2.8 %

Chevron stock opened at $157.65 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $147.43 and a 200 day moving average price of $152.90. The company has a market capitalization of $288.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.09. Chevron Co. has a 52 week low of $135.37 and a 52 week high of $167.11. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

Chevron (NYSE:CVX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 1st. The oil and gas company reported $2.51 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.47 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $50.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $48.86 billion. Chevron had a net margin of 8.44% and a return on equity of 13.07%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.05 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Chevron Co. will post 10.65 EPS for the current year.

Chevron Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a dividend of $1.63 per share. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.14%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. Chevron’s dividend payout ratio is currently 71.65%.

Chevron Profile

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.