Hopwood Financial Services Inc. Invests $326,000 in Chevron Co. (NYSE:CVX)

Hopwood Financial Services Inc. bought a new position in Chevron Co. (NYSE:CVX) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 2,248 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock, valued at approximately $326,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Chevron by 11.5% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 31,108,760 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $4,581,137,000 after acquiring an additional 3,203,899 shares during the period. RPG Investment Advisory LLC boosted its position in Chevron by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. RPG Investment Advisory LLC now owns 121,167 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $17,844,000 after buying an additional 3,933 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Chevron by 0.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 159,105,244 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $23,431,429,000 after acquiring an additional 874,962 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of Chevron by 5.7% in the third quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 3,147,686 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $463,560,000 after purchasing an additional 171,089 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dale Q Rice Investment Management Ltd purchased a new position in Chevron during the 4th quarter valued at about $594,000. 72.42% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CVX has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $175.00 target price on shares of Chevron in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Barclays cut their price objective on Chevron from $174.00 to $171.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Raymond James reduced their target price on shares of Chevron from $180.00 to $175.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Chevron from $188.00 to $184.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Citigroup raised Chevron from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $145.00 to $185.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Chevron has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $174.13.

Chevron Stock Performance

Shares of CVX opened at $153.94 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $154.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $151.91. The stock has a market cap of $271.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.84, a PEG ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. Chevron Co. has a 52 week low of $135.37 and a 52 week high of $167.11.

Chevron (NYSE:CVX) last released its earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The oil and gas company reported $2.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.42 by ($0.36). Chevron had a return on equity of 11.44% and a net margin of 8.71%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.45 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Chevron Co. will post 10.79 EPS for the current year.

Chevron Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a $1.71 dividend. This is an increase from Chevron’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.63. This represents a $6.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.44%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. Chevron’s payout ratio is currently 70.37%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Jeff B. Gustavson sold 9,325 shares of Chevron stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $152.50, for a total value of $1,422,062.50. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 1,057 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $161,192.50. The trade was a 89.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.20% of the company’s stock.

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.