California Resources (NYSE:CRC) Price Target Raised to $74.00 at Citigroup

California Resources (NYSE:CRC) had its price target boosted by Citigroup from $67.00 to $74.00 in a research report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. Citigroup currently has a neutral rating on the oil and gas producer’s stock.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on CRC. Wall Street Zen cut California Resources from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Sunday. Zacks Research raised California Resources from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Pickering Energy Partners cut shares of California Resources from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of California Resources from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 16th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of California Resources in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $70.50.

California Resources Stock Performance

California Resources stock opened at $68.86 on Monday. California Resources has a 1-year low of $30.97 and a 1-year high of $69.93. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.11 billion, a PE ratio of 16.88 and a beta of 1.11. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $58.61 and its 200 day simple moving average is $51.99.

California Resources (NYSE:CRC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 2nd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.49 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $924.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $789.67 million. California Resources had a net margin of 9.89% and a return on equity of 10.23%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.91 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that California Resources will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

California Resources Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 20th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th were issued a dividend of $0.405 per share. This represents a $1.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 13th. California Resources’s dividend payout ratio is currently 39.71%.

Insider Activity

In other California Resources news, VP Noelle M. Repetti sold 8,564 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.71, for a total value of $545,612.44. Following the transaction, the vice president owned 7,684 shares in the company, valued at approximately $489,547.64. The trade was a 52.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Omar Hayat sold 23,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.87, for a total transaction of $1,515,010.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 82,236 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,416,885.32. This trade represents a 21.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 72,283 shares of company stock worth $4,636,646. 0.53% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. increased its stake in shares of California Resources by 363.6% during the fourth quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 561 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 440 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC bought a new stake in California Resources in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Clearstead Advisors LLC raised its holdings in California Resources by 82.5% in the 3rd quarter. Clearstead Advisors LLC now owns 500 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares in the last quarter. Pinnacle Holdings LLC bought a new position in California Resources in the 4th quarter worth $27,000. Finally, Salomon & Ludwin LLC purchased a new stake in shares of California Resources in the 3rd quarter worth about $29,000. Institutional investors own 97.79% of the company’s stock.

California Resources Company Profile

California Resources Corporation (NYSE: CRC) is an independent exploration and production company focused exclusively on developing oil and natural gas assets in California. Headquartered in Newport Beach, the company engages in hydraulic fracturing, well completions, reservoir management and enhanced recovery operations to produce crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids.

CRC’s operations are concentrated in three core regions: the Los Angeles Basin, the Ventura Basin and the San Joaquin Basin.