Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Boosts Position in Canadian Natural Resources Limited $CNQ

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE:CNQ) (TSE:CNQ) by 0.8% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 58,891 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after purchasing an additional 460 shares during the quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Canadian Natural Resources were worth $1,849,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CNQ. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in Canadian Natural Resources during the second quarter worth $27,000. Investment Management Corp VA ADV boosted its position in Canadian Natural Resources by 158.3% during the first quarter. Investment Management Corp VA ADV now owns 997 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 611 shares in the last quarter. Sierra Ocean LLC boosted its position in Canadian Natural Resources by 104.0% during the first quarter. Sierra Ocean LLC now owns 1,569 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 800 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position in Canadian Natural Resources by 47.3% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,644 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 528 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Adirondack Trust Co. boosted its position in Canadian Natural Resources by 317.1% during the second quarter. Adirondack Trust Co. now owns 1,710 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $54,000 after purchasing an additional 1,300 shares in the last quarter. 74.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $62.00 price objective on shares of Canadian Natural Resources in a research report on Wednesday, September 24th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Canadian Natural Resources in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Zacks Research upgraded Canadian Natural Resources from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 26th. TD Securities restated a “buy” rating on shares of Canadian Natural Resources in a research report on Tuesday, September 30th. Finally, National Bankshares restated a “sector perform” rating on shares of Canadian Natural Resources in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $62.00.

Canadian Natural Resources Stock Performance

Canadian Natural Resources stock opened at $31.58 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $65.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.20 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $31.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $30.86. Canadian Natural Resources Limited has a 52 week low of $24.65 and a 52 week high of $37.35. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38.

Canadian Natural Resources (NYSE:CNQ) (TSE:CNQ) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.44 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $6.39 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.97 billion. Canadian Natural Resources had a return on equity of 19.67% and a net margin of 19.00%.During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.88 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Canadian Natural Resources Limited will post 2.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Canadian Natural Resources Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 19th were paid a dividend of $0.4269 per share. This is a boost from Canadian Natural Resources’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. This represents a $1.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.4%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 19th. Canadian Natural Resources’s payout ratio is currently 60.64%.

About Canadian Natural Resources

Canadian Natural Resources Limited acquires, explores for, develops, produces, markets, and sells crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids (NGLs). The company offers light and medium crude oil, primary heavy crude oil, Pelican Lake heavy crude oil, bitumen (thermal oil), and synthetic crude oil (SCO).