48,008 Shares in Canadian Natural Resources Limited $CNQ Acquired by Capula Management Ltd

Capula Management Ltd acquired a new stake in Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE:CNQ) (TSE:CNQ) in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 48,008 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock, valued at approximately $2,339,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Capital Research Global Investors grew its holdings in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 31.5% during 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 in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of 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 valued at $3,160,340,000 after buying an additional 818,809 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Canadian Natural Resources by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,518,621 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $710,119,000 after acquiring an additional 1,347,844 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in Canadian Natural Resources by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 14,308,539 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $484,344,000 after acquiring an additional 260,746 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on CNQ shares. Desjardins raised shares of Canadian Natural Resources to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Zacks Research upgraded Canadian Natural Resources from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings cut Canadian Natural Resources from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. Scotiabank upgraded Canadian Natural Resources to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Finally, Raymond James Financial raised Canadian Natural Resources from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Canadian Natural Resources presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $57.00.

Canadian Natural Resources Trading Up 2.8%

Shares of CNQ opened at $47.07 on Friday. Canadian Natural Resources Limited has a 12-month low of $29.30 and a 12-month high of $51.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $97.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.05 and a beta of 0.47. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $43.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $43.18. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37.

Canadian Natural Resources (NYSE:CNQ) (TSE:CNQ) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $7.72 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.16 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Canadian Natural Resources Limited will post 3.89 EPS for the current year.

Canadian Natural Resources Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 7th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 23rd were given a dividend of $0.625 per share. This represents a $2.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 23rd. Canadian Natural Resources’s payout ratio is presently 54.03%.

About Canadian Natural Resources

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.