Legal & General Group Plc Cuts Stake in Cenovus Energy Inc $CVE

Legal & General Group Plc lowered its position in shares of Cenovus Energy Inc (NYSE:CVE) (TSE:CVE) by 5.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,198,130 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after selling 282,541 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Cenovus Energy were worth $88,054,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CVE. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in shares of Cenovus Energy by 291.3% during the third quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 106,582,971 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $1,809,758,000 after buying an additional 79,345,506 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its stake in shares of Cenovus Energy by 322.7% during the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 15,521,050 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $211,338,000 after buying an additional 11,849,355 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its stake in shares of Cenovus Energy by 46.7% during the third quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 30,643,806 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $520,196,000 after buying an additional 9,753,134 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Cenovus Energy by 12.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,525,477 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $1,074,660,000 after purchasing an additional 7,197,843 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canoe Financial LP purchased a new position in Cenovus Energy in the fourth quarter valued at about $102,662,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 51.19% of the company’s stock.

Cenovus Energy Price Performance

Shares of CVE stock opened at $27.57 on Friday. Cenovus Energy Inc has a fifty-two week low of $12.88 and a fifty-two week high of $32.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $51.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.15 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.57. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $27.50 and its 200-day simple moving average is $22.15.

Cenovus Energy (NYSE:CVE) (TSE:CVE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The oil and gas company reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.05. Cenovus Energy had a return on equity of 15.29% and a net margin of 9.53%.The business had revenue of $10.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.47 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.47 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Cenovus Energy Inc will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cenovus Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.2%. This is a positive change from Cenovus Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. Cenovus Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 32.42%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CVE has been the topic of several analyst reports. Raymond James Financial lowered Cenovus Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Cenovus Energy from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Cenovus Energy from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. Zacks Research upgraded Cenovus Energy from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Cenovus Energy in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $35.25.

Cenovus Energy Profile

Cenovus Energy Inc is a Canadian integrated energy company engaged in the exploration, development and production of crude oil, natural gas liquids and natural gas, together with downstream refining and marketing activities. Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Cenovus operates a mix of oil sands thermal and dilbit assets, conventional oil and gas properties, and owns refining and midstream assets designed to move and process hydrocarbons into finished petroleum products for commercial markets.

The company was originally formed as a spin‑off from Encana Corporation in 2009 and has grown through organic development and strategic acquisitions.