Imperial Oil (TSE:IMO) Cut to Strong Sell at Cibc World Mkts

Cibc World Mkts downgraded shares of Imperial Oil (TSE:IMO) (NYSEMKT:IMO) from a hold rating to a strong sell rating in a research note published on Tuesday morning,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on IMO. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on Imperial Oil from C$115.00 to C$117.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. TD Securities downgraded Imperial Oil from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from C$102.00 to C$104.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on Imperial Oil from C$100.00 to C$110.00 in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Raymond James Financial downgraded Imperial Oil from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their target price for the company from C$105.00 to C$107.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 3rd. Finally, CIBC downgraded Imperial Oil from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from C$108.00 to C$110.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of C$105.88.

Imperial Oil Stock Performance

TSE:IMO opened at C$119.06 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 18.04, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 0.98. Imperial Oil has a 1 year low of C$82.98 and a 1 year high of C$132.08. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is C$123.22 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is C$109.91. The company has a market cap of C$60.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.13, a PEG ratio of 0.21 and a beta of 1.14.

Imperial Oil Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 1st were given a dividend of $0.74 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 4th. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.5%. This is an increase from Imperial Oil’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. Imperial Oil’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.11%.

About Imperial Oil

Imperial Oil is one of Canada’s largest integrated oil companies, focusing on upstream operations, petroleum refining operations, and the marketing of petroleum products. Production averaged 398 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2020. The company estimates that it holds 5.2 billion boe of proved and probable crude oil and natural gas reserves.