Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Cenovus Energy Call Options (NYSE:CVE)

Cenovus Energy Inc. (NYSE:CVE) (TSE:CVE) was the target of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Traders acquired 14,285 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 210% compared to the average daily volume of 4,603 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on CVE. Scotiabank upgraded Cenovus Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 6th. UBS Group started coverage on Cenovus Energy in a research note on Wednesday, July 12th. They set a “neutral” rating on the stock. StockNews.com raised Cenovus Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Cenovus Energy from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $31.88.

Cenovus Energy Price Performance

Shares of CVE stock opened at $17.53 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $33.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.84 and a beta of 2.20. The business’s fifty day moving average is $20.06 and its 200 day moving average is $18.33. Cenovus Energy has a twelve month low of $14.97 and a twelve month high of $22.02. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Cenovus Energy Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 15th will be issued a $0.1008 dividend. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.30%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 14th. Cenovus Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.70%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cenovus Energy

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Cenovus Energy by 8.3% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 48,992,432 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $855,113,000 after buying an additional 3,746,469 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Cenovus Energy by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 41,530,265 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $638,320,000 after purchasing an additional 869,663 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its stake in shares of Cenovus Energy by 8.6% in the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 29,412,644 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $676,838,000 after purchasing an additional 2,325,082 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in shares of Cenovus Energy by 30.0% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 28,481,746 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $474,791,000 after acquiring an additional 6,570,038 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Nova Scotia lifted its stake in shares of Cenovus Energy by 5.3% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 15,530,392 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $263,777,000 after acquiring an additional 777,267 shares during the last quarter. 50.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Cenovus Energy Company Profile

Cenovus Energy Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, produces, refines, transports, and markets crude oil and natural gas in Canada and internationally. The company operates through Oil Sands, Conventional, Offshore, Canadian Manufacturing, and U.S. Manufacturing segments. The Oil Sands segment develops and produces bitumen and heavy oil in northern Alberta and Saskatchewan.