Canadian Natural Resources Limited $CNQ Shares Sold by First Manhattan CO. LLC.

First Manhattan CO. LLC. decreased its holdings in Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE:CNQ) (TSE:CNQ) by 3.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 1,401,603 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 48,221 shares during the quarter. First Manhattan CO. LLC. owned 0.07% of Canadian Natural Resources worth $48,023,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Capital Research Global Investors grew its position in Canadian Natural Resources by 31.5% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 146,331,336 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $4,956,204,000 after buying an additional 35,067,143 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Canadian Natural Resources by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 93,305,198 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $3,160,340,000 after buying an additional 818,809 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in Canadian Natural Resources by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 42,745,981 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,446,951,000 after buying an additional 1,342,954 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Canadian Natural Resources by 7.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,518,621 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $710,119,000 after purchasing an additional 1,347,844 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Canadian Natural Resources by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 14,308,539 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $484,344,000 after purchasing an additional 260,746 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. ATB Cormark Capital Markets lowered shares of Canadian Natural Resources from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Canadian Natural Resources from $37.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. Scotiabank reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Canadian Natural Resources in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Canadian Natural Resources from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, June 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Canadian Natural Resources from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $57.00.

Canadian Natural Resources Trading Down 2.2%

Canadian Natural Resources stock opened at $42.34 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $46.19 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $88.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.64 and a beta of 0.45. Canadian Natural Resources Limited has a 52 week low of $29.30 and a 52 week high of $51.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 0.98.

Canadian Natural Resources (NYSE:CNQ) (TSE:CNQ) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $7.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.57 billion. Canadian Natural Resources had a net margin of 22.04% and a return on equity of 17.49%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.16 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Canadian Natural Resources Limited will post 4.2 EPS for the current year.

Canadian Natural Resources Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 7th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 23rd will be paid a dividend of $0.625 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 23rd. This represents a $2.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.9%. Canadian Natural Resources’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.03%.

Canadian Natural Resources Company Profile

Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE: CNQ) is a Calgary-based independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company. Established in the early 1970s and publicly listed in Canada and the United States, the company is principally engaged in the exploration, development, production, and marketing of crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids. Its asset base spans conventional and unconventional reservoirs and includes oil sands mining and in-situ thermal projects, midstream processing and upgrading capacity, and related field operations.

The company’s operations are concentrated in Western Canada, where it develops heavy crude, bitumen from oil sands and conventional light crude and natural gas resources.