Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Sells 16,644 Shares of Canadian Natural Resources Limited $CNQ

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE:CNQ) (TSE:CNQ) by 6.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 235,696 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 16,644 shares during the period. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Canadian Natural Resources were worth $7,533,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 90,742,099 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $2,852,024,000 after acquiring an additional 3,003,542 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in Canadian Natural Resources by 4.5% in the second quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 47,939,585 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,505,303,000 after purchasing an additional 2,051,714 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc raised its position in Canadian Natural Resources by 0.8% in the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 41,581,125 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,304,267,000 after purchasing an additional 316,933 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake in Canadian Natural Resources by 10.3% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 27,359,777 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $855,414,000 after purchasing an additional 2,546,233 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Canadian Natural Resources by 19.8% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 17,146,792 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $548,214,000 after purchasing an additional 2,832,155 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on CNQ shares. Zacks Research lowered Canadian Natural Resources from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 19th. TD Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Canadian Natural Resources in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. Desjardins cut Canadian Natural Resources from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 24th. Wall Street Zen cut Canadian Natural Resources from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group set a $35.00 target price on shares of Canadian Natural Resources and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 2nd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $48.50.

Canadian Natural Resources Stock Up 2.4%

NYSE CNQ opened at $33.09 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $32.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $31.92. Canadian Natural Resources Limited has a one year low of $24.65 and a one year high of $35.12. The firm has a market cap of $68.88 billion, a PE ratio of 14.64 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.53.

Canadian Natural Resources (NYSE:CNQ) (TSE:CNQ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $6.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.81 billion. Canadian Natural Resources had a return on equity of 18.93% and a net margin of 14.90%.During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.97 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Canadian Natural Resources Limited will post 2.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Canadian Natural Resources Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 12th were issued a dividend of $0.5875 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 12th. This represents a $2.35 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.1%. This is an increase from Canadian Natural Resources’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Canadian Natural Resources’s payout ratio is currently 74.34%.

Canadian Natural Resources 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.