American Century Companies Inc. Reduces Position in Chevron Co. (NYSE:CVX)

American Century Companies Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Chevron Co. (NYSE:CVX) by 3.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,905,465 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after selling 67,010 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc.’s holdings in Chevron were worth $275,988,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Plancorp LLC boosted its stake in shares of Chevron by 6.0% during the fourth quarter. Plancorp LLC now owns 10,998 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $1,593,000 after purchasing an additional 624 shares during the period. Cyrus J. Lawrence LLC lifted its stake in Chevron by 36.4% in the fourth quarter. Cyrus J. Lawrence LLC now owns 341 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 91 shares during the period. Mizuho Securities USA LLC lifted its stake in Chevron by 43.6% in the fourth quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 158,401 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $22,943,000 after acquiring an additional 48,107 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Chevron in the fourth quarter worth $3,036,000. Finally, ZEGA Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Chevron in the fourth quarter worth $427,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.42% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Chevron news, VP Jeff B. Gustavson sold 9,325 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 1,057 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $161,192.50. The trade was a 89.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Chevron Price Performance

CVX opened at $164.37 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $156.29 and a 200-day moving average price of $152.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market cap of $289.39 billion, a PE ratio of 16.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.08. Chevron Co. has a 1 year low of $135.37 and a 1 year high of $167.11.

Chevron (NYSE:CVX) last posted its quarterly 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 business posted $3.45 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Chevron Co. will post 10.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Chevron Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were given a $1.71 dividend. This is a positive change from Chevron’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.63. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $6.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.16%. Chevron’s payout ratio is 70.37%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on CVX. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Chevron from $184.00 to $173.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Truist Financial dropped their price target on Chevron from $164.00 to $160.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Raymond James dropped their price target on Chevron from $180.00 to $175.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Citigroup raised Chevron from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $145.00 to $185.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Chevron from $188.00 to $184.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Chevron presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $174.13.

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.