Imperial Oil Limited (TSE:IMO) Receives Consensus Rating of “Reduce” from Brokerages

Imperial Oil Limited (TSE:IMO) (NYSEMKT:IMO) has received a consensus rating of “Reduce” from the eleven ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and six have issued a hold recommendation on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$110.56.

A number of analysts have commented on IMO shares. CIBC cut shares of Imperial Oil from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from C$108.00 to C$110.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Imperial Oil from C$101.00 to C$110.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on Imperial Oil from C$115.00 to C$117.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Desjardins boosted their price target on Imperial Oil from C$114.00 to C$120.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Cibc World Mkts downgraded Imperial Oil from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th.

Imperial Oil Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of TSE:IMO opened at C$138.00 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is C$128.60 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is C$117.82. The stock has a market capitalization of C$68.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.62, a PEG ratio of 0.21 and a beta of 0.98. Imperial Oil has a 52-week low of C$82.98 and a 52-week high of C$141.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 18.04, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 1.44.

Imperial Oil (TSE:IMO) (NYSEMKT:IMO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 31st. The company reported C$2.17 earnings per share for the quarter. Imperial Oil had a net margin of 10.00% and a return on equity of 21.23%. Analysts expect that Imperial Oil will post 8.6164609 EPS for the current year.

Imperial Oil Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 1st were paid a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 4th. This is a positive change from Imperial Oil’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. Imperial Oil’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 35.25%.

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.