Imperial Oil Limited (NYSEAMERICAN:IMO) Receives $116.00 Average PT from Analysts

Shares of Imperial Oil Limited (NYSEAMERICAN:IMO) (TSE:IMO) have received a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” from the ten ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have given a hold recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $116.00.

IMO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Imperial Capital reissued a “sell” rating on shares of Imperial Oil in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. TD Securities restated a “sell” rating on shares of Imperial Oil in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Scotiabank reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating on shares of Imperial Oil in a research note on Friday. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Imperial Oil from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Imperial Oil

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of IMO. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd lifted its stake in Imperial Oil by 88.4% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 36,253 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $3,290,000 after acquiring an additional 17,011 shares in the last quarter. J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG bought a new position in shares of Imperial Oil during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,301,000. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Imperial Oil by 72.9% in the fourth quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 41,858 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $3,625,000 after purchasing an additional 17,643 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG raised its holdings in shares of Imperial Oil by 21.6% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,709,910 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $147,582,000 after purchasing an additional 303,286 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CWA Asset Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Imperial Oil in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,757,000. 20.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Imperial Oil Stock Performance

Shares of NYSEAMERICAN:IMO opened at $122.52 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $122.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $117.70. Imperial Oil has a fifty-two week low of $81.66 and a fifty-two week high of $139.44. The company has a market capitalization of $59.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.90 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 1.02.

Imperial Oil Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 4th were given a dividend of $0.87 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 4th. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. Imperial Oil’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.24%.

About Imperial Oil

Imperial Oil (NYSEAMERICAN: IMO) is a Canadian integrated energy company involved in the exploration, production, refining and marketing of petroleum and petrochemical products. Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Imperial has operated in Canada for well over a century and is one of the country’s long-standing energy firms. The company is majority-owned by Exxon Mobil Corporation, which provides strategic and technical links to global upstream and downstream capabilities.

Imperial’s operations span upstream activities—exploration and production of crude oil, natural gas and oil-sands resources—and downstream operations including refining, manufacturing of fuels and lubricants, petrochemical products, and retail distribution.