South Dakota Investment Council Increases Stake in Chevron Co. (NYSE:CVX)

South Dakota Investment Council boosted its stake in Chevron Co. (NYSE:CVX) by 54.4% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 90,286 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after buying an additional 31,800 shares during the period. South Dakota Investment Council’s holdings in Chevron were worth $13,467,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Chevron by 15,548.2% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,202,411 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $4,776,720,000 after buying an additional 3,181,946 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in shares of Chevron by 7.0% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 34,166,899 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $5,761,223,000 after buying an additional 2,244,995 shares during the period. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Chevron during the third quarter valued at approximately $348,789,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Chevron by 36.4% during the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,614,498 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $778,097,000 after buying an additional 1,230,619 shares during the period. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its position in shares of Chevron by 28.3% during the third quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 4,179,942 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $704,822,000 after purchasing an additional 923,119 shares in the last quarter. 72.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CVX has been the topic of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Chevron from $185.00 to $198.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Chevron from $185.00 to $197.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Chevron from $185.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. Barclays started coverage on Chevron in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $203.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Scotiabank raised Chevron from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $170.00 to $195.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $184.75.

Chevron Price Performance

CVX traded up $0.93 on Tuesday, hitting $162.85. 5,533,624 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,459,302. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $155.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $151.66. The firm has a market cap of $302.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.12. Chevron Co. has a one year low of $139.62 and a one year high of $172.38. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

Chevron (NYSE:CVX) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 2nd. The oil and gas company reported $3.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.19 by $0.26. The company had revenue of $47.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $50.93 billion. Chevron had a return on equity of 15.24% and a net margin of 10.63%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 16.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $4.09 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Chevron Co. will post 13.58 EPS for the current year.

Chevron Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 11th. Investors of record on Friday, February 16th were paid a dividend of $1.63 per share. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.00%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 15th. This is an increase from Chevron’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.51. Chevron’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 57.39%.

Insider Activity at Chevron

In other Chevron news, VP Alana K. Knowles sold 2,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.09, for a total transaction of $448,252.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 276 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,184.84. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Chevron

Chevron Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in the integrated energy and chemicals operations in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Upstream and Downstream. The Upstream segment is involved in the exploration, development, production, and transportation of crude oil and natural gas; processing, liquefaction, transportation, and regasification of liquefied natural gas; transportation of crude oil through pipelines; transportation, storage, and marketing of natural gas; and carbon capture and storage, as well as a gas-to-liquids plant.